Vampires of Cornicupris
by FanfictionWriter83729
Summary: AU. [Full summary inside] The Coordinators have heightened abilities, but it all comes with a blood price. When Kira and Cagalli moved to Cornicupris, they didn’t know that they’d likely be meeting their new “friends” on the wrong end of a fang.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** Do not own GS/D.

**Summary:** AU. The Coordinators have heightened abilities, and then some, but it all comes with a blood price. When Kira and Cagalli moved to Cornicupris, they didn't know that they'd likely be meeting their new "friends" on the wrong end of a fang. Caught in an underground war between vampires and vampire hunters, Kira and Cagalli, and their spirit forms, Strike and Rouge, must 1. stay away from vampires whom they find themselves increasingly attracted to, and 2. find a way to stop the war before an all-out genocide erupts…and neither side is left standing.

Vampires of Cornicupris

**1: Shuttle**

**Kira's POV**

A small part on the side of his neck started itching. It intensified. Then, it BURNED…

Kira awoke with a start, feeling Strike's cool body next to his cheek. Strike was perched on his left shoulder, his hand-size mecha body glowing with tiny runes on the forearms, cradling the spirit form within. Strike's alternative body, a small mechanical bird, was safely packed away with their other luggage. He laid a small hand at the base of Kira's neck, partly to steady himself, and partly to comfort him.

"Kira, is something wrong?"

"Nothing. Just a dream, is all."

"Well, you've been having the same dream for nearly a week now…And I think it's getting worse."

Kira stayed silent. He should have known that Strike would know, since he _was_ an extension of himself. It shouldn't surprise him anymore that Strike would dream the same dreams.

He shook his head, clearing the dream away. It didn't do anything to reassure him of his future at Cornicupris. It also didn't bode well that the shuttle that was taking them there was nearly empty. But then again, perhaps that was because of the Natural and Coordinator rift. Cornicupris was the only true bicultural colony, even considering Orb and Heliopolis, most Naturals never venturing far from the surface of Earth, and most Coordinators never leaving the PLANTS.

Even Orb and Heliopolis, countries that were openly welcome to Coordinators, never had more than two or three Coordinator occupants at a time.

Rubbing his eyes sleepily, he looked over to his other classmates. Sai and Flay were in the seats behind him, their spirit forms holding their miniature mecha hands in between the sleeping pair, and across the aisle sat Tolle and Mirr, deeply in conversation. Kuzzey, still asleep, had his head lolled over to one side and was drooling slightly.

The only other occupant was a blonde-haired girl that had come to Heliopolis from Orb. Apparently, even less people from Orb wanted to go to Cornicupris, so the flight had been cancelled, and she had been forced to come to Heliopolis first. Kira wasn't surprised that she was still asleep. Interestingly enough, the body of her spirit form was a red version of Strike's body.

Kira checked his watch. Exactly four hours until docking. Reassured that Strike would wake him should he oversleep, he closed his eyes again and hoped for sweeter dreams.

**Cagalli POV**

Cagalli was too tired to even try to go to sleep. _Damn that shuttle cancellation,_ she thought bitterly. A trip around the world didn't even take as much time. Fortunately, Rouge was sleeping soundly at the crook of her arm, so she wouldn't be a total zombie when they finally arrived. It was strange, to be awake when your spirit-form was asleep. It made one feel as if one were half-asleep herself, and everything was out of focus…though Cagalli didn't think that any true sleep was forthcoming.

Cornicupris…a city on the moon. She had gone to a prep school there once, but only for a short time, before her teachers had told her father sadly that there was no hope in even attempting to make her a lady. She smiled at the memory. Now, she had to go back for some sort of boarding school, probably for the next few years until she had earned her designation to be a monarch-in-waiting of Orb.

She declined bodyguards. She didn't need them, and besides, she'd rather marry Yuuna right there and then than to be escorted to school by a whole entourage. Yuuna…that purple-haired jerk was one of her main reasons for going to Cornicupris in the first place.

The pilot's voice came drifted over from the cabin. "Hey kids, we're almost there." With only a handful of them there, he didn't even bother with the intercom. Rouge stirred.

"We're there? Finally!"

They looked over to the window, and saw the moon's surface. Cornicupris was about half the size of Orb, and covered a little over a half of the moon's surface. She barely caught a glimpse of grey rock and sand before Cornicupris came into view.

She heard that Cornicupris was a meeting of PLANT and Earth technology. But considering that it was such a wonder, Cagalli was surprised at its size. Even though it was a rather large country, it was sparsely populated, getting denser as one moved towards the middle. It probably had a quarter of the Orb population.

She quickly cleared all comparisons to Orb out of her head. It didn't do to get homesick this early into her little journey. Classes wouldn't even start for another week.

She braced herself as the shuttle came to a halt. The sleeping kid behind her jumped awake, his spirit-form falling off his arm as he did so. The other occupants got up and unloaded, chatting. They all seemed to know each other…

"Well, you can always go and introduce yourself," Rouge hissed. Cagalli flushed. All her other classmates were back at Orb. She didn't know anyone here.

**Change scene: dorm rooms, Cornicupris Academy**

_It is a predictable arrangement: an all-boy dorm, an all-girl dorm. But further than that, there is also an all-Natural dorm, and an all-Coordinator dorm. There are strict, unsaid rules about no mixing, and even the staff administrators and the master computers know them by heart._

_However, it seems as though for a couple of kids, a mistake was made._

_Kira Yamato would be placed in dorm-room 674. Roommates: Athrun Zala, Nicol Armafi._

_Cagalli Yula Attha would be placed in dorm-room 574. Roommates: Meyrin Hawke, Lacus Clyne._


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** If I owned GS/D…well, you wouldn't want to know what would happen!

**Some Concepts:**

The spirit-forms are kind of an extension of the person, stored in some sort of body, sealed there by a magic rune. Their bodies are miniature forms of the mechas in the original series.

Umm…unless specifically pointed out, all the characters are sixteen in this fic.

For plot convenience, there's a number of different dialects spoken throughout the nations, though the official language of the PLANTS is Ủsré, the official language of Earth is Ghia, and the official language of Cornicupris is Common. Each area also has its own languages and cultures.

Vampires of Cornicupris

**2: Arrival**

The students got off the ship, and entered into the port. Strangely, it was all very quiet, with only a few people coming in and out. Occasionally, a monotone voice was heard overhead, but was drowned by the buzzing silence.

"Maybe it's slow season," Tolle whispered, for even a normally spoken sentence would have reverberated through the silent building like a shout. Silently, they picked up their pieces of luggage.

"Well, Cornicupris isn't known to be a hot tourist spot," Sai noted, heaving his own bag and graciously pulling Flay's wheeled bags. Flay clung to his shoulder, and both mechas were sitting on hers.

"I wonder why, it's supposed to be a wonderful place," Mirr said. "Kira, are you coming?"

Kira was looking wonderingly at the empty port. "Huh? Oh, yeah, of course." He slung his own bag over his shoulder, and was about to follow them, when Strike tugged at his hair.

"Strike? What is it?" He looked over his shoulder to see what had caught the spirit-form's attention. The blonde girl seemed to be having a hard time with her own bags. And no wonder, too, as they were large, pink monstrosities. Even Flay didn't have as much.

"Need help with that?" he offered.

"No thanks," she said with vehemence, for some reason insulted at his offer. "I can handle my own burdens." But the way that both she and her spirit-form were tugging at the things was very unconvincing.

"Well, it's okay to ask for help some time," Kira continued, and not even waiting for her to protest, took a handle and began to pull. Relieved of half her luggage, she was able to make progress with the other half. She grumbled something unflattering before she muttered an almost inaudible "Thanks."

"Why do you have so much anyway?"

"The maids did it. They thought that I'd waste away up here, away from Orb, if they didn't do anything to intervene."

Both Kira and Strike had to laugh, before her indignant scowl made them suppress it, though Strike continued snickering, his runes glowing brightly with each snicker. The angry flashes on Rouge's runes indicated that the girl and her spirit-form were not amused.

"I'm Kira, by the way," he said, hurrying a little to catch up to his friends.

"Cagalli."

"Why did your parents send you up here?"

Cagalli thought for a moment. Not many people knew her status as a prominent royal family member, and she intended to keep it that way. On the other hand, she didn't want to lie.

"My father said I needed to see more of the real world," she said honestly. "How 'bout you? Why are you here?"

"My mother's a translator for Heliopolis. She wanted me to come over here to learn the languages better. She said that she and Father were looking for a place over here as well."

"Why? Heliopolis too boring for you?"

"No, it's not that. It's just that Mother's been getting edgy lately since the rumours started that the Atthas were going to combine their power with the Seirans."

Cagalli felt her heart skip a beat. "So what's wrong with that?" she demanded, hoping that she didn't sound suspicious.

"Nothing really, its just that…the Seirans have been pretty vocal about anti-Coordinator sentiments, and if someone like _that_ is going to run Orb and Heliopolis one day…well, Heliopolis is a neutral country, after all."

Cagalli nodded stiffly, a little miffed at the unintentional insult, but understanding the situation nevertheless.

"Which school are you going to?" she asked, though she knew the answer. The amount of luggage was a giveaway that he was going to the same boarding school.

"International Cornicupris Secondary," he answered.

"I'm going there as well."

"Maybe we'll see each other in a few classes."

They were walking now, catching up to the rest a few moments ago, giving up hope of hailing a taxi. Surprisingly, the taxi service at the airport was…nonexistent. So it took them longer than they expected to actually reach their school. And someone was waiting for them.

A tall, blonde, middle-aged man was there, standing in front of the doors of the school, grinning. His spirit-form was housed in a Moebius Zero model, about the size of a hand lengthwise, meeting the students about fifty feet from the entrance, circling a large figure-eight over them before landing on the man's shoulder.

When he spoke to them, he spoke in Common, the official language of Cornicupris. He said something along the lines of:

"Welcome to International Cornicupris Secondary. I'm Mr. La Flaga, head guidance counselor at this school."


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** Do not own GS/D.

Beginning pairings (can and will probably change as time goes by):

A little KC (will change)

Flay x Sai (may or may not change)

Tolle x Mirr (will probably change)

Athrun x Lacus (will change)

I have a feeling that there's major OOC-ness going around…reviews and advice are nice!

Oh, and I do realize that this is a pretty slow pace…but all the other characters will soon be assembled! Promise!

And the first part of this fic will be rated for denseness! That's right, it'll take a while for the newcomers to realize that Coordinators are vamps! (It's not common knowledge that they need to drink blood to live—only on PLANTS and on Cornicupris is it commonly known).

I guess I should also say that the spirit-forms are inspired by the daemons of His Dark Materials, and by the familiars of the Witches of Willowmere…which do not belong to me. I guess I should declare **disclaimer **right about now.

Vampires of Cornicupris

**3: School Policies and Dorms**

The first thing that Mr. La Flaga, or "Mwu," as he insisted to be called, did was to give them a map of the campus, and told them was that they were going to be sent to the dorms for some rest before being called down to orientation.

He lead them to the main office, where he asked them to place their palms on some sort of machine. As Kira did this, he felt a small prick on his middle finger.

"Ouch," he muttered. Mwu looked at him in a bemused, sympathetic kind of way, as he handed him a band-aid.

"Sorry 'bout that kid," he said, "but that's school policy."

"What's it for?" Sai asked.

"Just a small, quick test – you know, checking if you're in good health, without involving any doctors or needles," Mwu answered distractedly. Kira couldn't help but notice that he wasn't looking at them as he answered, and that his Moebius Zero spirit had hovered in the air for a brief second, betraying his hesitation.

None of the others seemed to notice, though.

"It's probably nothing," Strike whispered in his ear, reassuringly, before fussing over the small puncture. It had already begun to close.

But Kira continued to wonder at Mwu as the others followed with the same "test." Once a student was finished, a computer at a far desk printed out something. After all of them were done, Mwu collected the papers and told them: "The computers have already generated your room numbers," he said, handing out sheets of paper to them, as well as small cards. "And your ID cards are the keys. Your roommates are probably already in."

Flay muttered something about having to share her room, but aside from that no one had anymore comments.

"So what dorm are you in?" Sai asked, taking out his papers.

"The green one on the map," Mirr said, referring to the multi-coloured tool. "How 'bout you guys?"

"Same," Tolle said.

"I'm there as well," Kuzzey put in.

It seemed that everyone was in the green area, except…

"I'm in the red dorms," Kira said, checking once again to make sure.

"Really?" Flay asked.

"Aw, then you won't get to spend time with us!" Tolle said, catching Kira in a headlock. "Though you might consider that a good thing."

The dorms were a cluster of buildings, one on each side of the school. As Kira walked towards the area located in the red area, Strike asked: "Hey, that girl over there is following us. You know, the one with the pink luggage? Wonder if she has the same dorm."

Kira looked over his shoulder, and the girl caught his eye. "What?" she demanded, hauling the pink things.

"Ah, sorry," Kira said rushedly, though he didn't know why. ("Because she's scary, that's why!" Strike told him.) "But are you in the same area?"

"Yeah. What about it?" (While Rouge told her: "At least you won't be alone!" Of course, Kira couldn't hear their lines.)

"No-nothing," Kira stuttered. On one hand, it didn't seem gentlemanly to just turn his back and leave her to find her own way. On the other hand, she might take offense if he tried to help her again. She had, after all, snatched back her belongings from him the moment they entered school grounds.

Cagalli sighed at his indecision. "Come on, then," she said, brushing past him and stalking to the dormitories.

Strike sighed. "This is going to be a long year."

They entered the building labeled "74" on the map. They parted ways on the 5th floor, as Kira went up to the 6th. Jet lag was catching up with him, or the excitement of seeing his new school was wearing off, but he was getting tired quickly. It was only because Strike was constantly telling him things like "If you keep going that way, you'll hit into a wall," that kept him alert enough to actually make it to his room.

Yawning, he slipped the card through the key slot and entered in. The room was empty and rather dark, now that artificial night was coming on. Had it really taken hours to get from the port to the school? He made for the room at the far end of the elevator. He was much too out of it now to realize that the other two beds in the two adjacent rooms had evidence of occupation. One at the left side had what looked like the scattered remains of some pink robot, while the other on the right had music sheets cluttering up the space. Each bed in the room had a red uniform folded nicely and still in plastic at the foot of it. Strike made a mental note to tell him later.

But right then, his person just dove under the covers of the bed at the far end of the room, and slept the first true sleep he'd had in more than twenty-four hours. Strike kept awake for a little while longer, before joining him in dreamless rest.

They didn't even notice a tell-tale _click_ noise at the door.

**Xxx**

Athrun had come to the school about a week before, with Nicol in tow from the PLANTS. Both he and Nicol were in the same room, while Yzak, Dearka, and Shinn were in another (much to Yzak and Shinn's annoyance, and Dearka's amusement). They had expected to return to their room in a couple of hours, but had been held up at the cantina.

There were strict restrictions on the amount of blood that Coordinators were allowed to consume. Though each Coordinator only had to drink a couple of cups a week to survive, most had a craving which drove them to drink two full glasses a day. Like it was a drug.

A small part of Athrun knew the importance of blood restriction. Some Coordinators were consumed by the craving, and were kicked out of school. The more blood you took in a day, the harder it was to cut the consumption level…which lead to destructive behaviour.

That was what happened earlier that day. A burly Coordinator had fought with the bartender about how much blood he had consumed. In the end, they had to bring in Ms. Talia Gladys to settle things, before the others still waiting for their turn gave in to the craving…with dangerous consequences.

So he and Nicol walked back to their room. They were chatting, with Aegis and Blitz buzzing around the two friends. They spoke in the Coordinator language, of course, with the distinct dialect of Junius. The Natural language was so coarse, so hard on the ears. Common was a little better, using some aspects of both. At least it was tolerable.

"_Are you still thirsty, Athrun?"_

"_A little. But I've already reached my quota for this week."_

"_Do you want to have some of mine?" _Nicol offered his blood-filled pouch over to the Coordinator. Athrun shook his head.

"_Nah. I don't want to get addicted to it or anything. But thanks."_

They reached their room, and as they reached for the card slot, Aegis stopped them.

"_Wait."_

"_Aegis, what's wrong?" _Athrun asked.

"_Aegis is right," _Blitz said, cocking its head to the side, as if it was straining to catch a whispered voice. But their two people didn't notice anything.

"_There's another spirit-form in there," _Aegis said. Athrun shrugged.

"_There's nothing wrong with that. We were told that there'd be another roommate,"_ Nicol put in, wondering what made the spirit-forms hesitate.

"_It's strange…" _Blitz said, ignoring their comments. _"But I'm almost positive that the spirit-form inside is Natural."_

"Natural?" both boys said. They looked at each other. But what would a Natural be doing in their dorm? The blood-test that each student took upon arrival said whether the person was Natural or Coordinator, by checking their genes for modification, and each student was sorted accordingly.

The spirit-forms, however, were still a little edgy.

Unnerved, Athrun swiped the card down, and the door slid to the side.

It was dark inside, all the lights in the room turned off. But they could feel heat emanating from the previously unoccupied room. Coordinators had a lower body temperature than Naturals, making them very adaptable to the much colder stretches of space.

"_Um, Athrun, I don't want to alarm you, but I think that that might be a Natural," _Nicol whispered.

They got closer to the door. Their heightened sense of sound could hear the steady heartbeat from within. Coordinators had a lower pulse as well, and it did not sound as deeply. Or at least the strong ones didn't.

"_What do we do now?"_ Nicol asked.

"_Calm down, Nicol,"_ Athrun said, rationalizing. Their technology was top-notch. There was absolutely no way that there would be a Natural in their room. _"Maybe his genes weren't modified a lot. But he'll still be a Coordinator. The computers are programmed that way."_

This had the desired affect. _"Yeah, I guess you're right."_ He laughed a little. _"Blitz, don't scare us like that again!"_

Blitz also seemed a little sheepish. _"Sorry. I didn't think about that possibility."_

Aegis, however, remained uneasy. _"I guess we'll just see how this goes when he wakes up."_


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** standard. I'm not making any profits off this…thing. I've also decided to put in elements of "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer. Yeah, another thing to add to this mess. **Disclaimer.**

**Teaser:**

This will be an eventual KL AC pairing (I'd have it no other way!) But there will be other several canon pairings here and there. Hints of KiraCagalli LacusAthrunMeyrin LunamariaShinnStellar and that kind of stuff.

If you're confused about Kira and Cagalli's genetic state, I'll say this to you: The computers aren't wrong, they're just…misinformed? Don't have enough data? Not including another possibility? Yeah, something like that. Keep reading!

Some more changes:

Ages are technically the ages in the GSD storyline (means that only Shinn, Lunamaria and co. are sixteen whilst the GS cast is mainly eighteen).

Vampires of Cornicupris 

**4: Meeting the Roommate**

_He was thirsty. But he didn't want to tell Mother that, because every time he complained that he felt like he needed more, his mother looked so sad._

_He walked through the woods, hoping to find a rabbit or something, something to suck dry. Anything._

_A scent hit him. It wasn't a rabbit. It smelled of rain, a fresh, outdoorsy smell._

_It smelled of human._

_He felt his body go towards the scent, though the mind rebelled, yelled, cried, and begged against it._

_He begged, but nothing obeyed._

_He saw, through the clearing, a child._

_He bared his teeth—_

Athrun woke suddenly, breaking away from faded memories that still haunted his dreams. He looked over at the clock and groaned. The bright numbers, mocking him in the darkness, read 6:45 a.m. It was too early even for a school day, the first of many still days from now. He closed his eyes for a while, hoping to succumb to more sleep, when he noticed the thoughts of another, awake and alert.

Athrun knew, even before opening his eyes, that the new kid was already up. His unguarded thoughts flitted through Athrun's mind like a whispers uttered from a million voices. In the same way, he knew that Aegis was watching the boy from a discreet hiding place. Reluctantly, he got up as well. He wanted more sleep, but he and Aegis needed to confirm what the computers had decided.

He came into the hall, and found the boy clumsily trying to put on the red blazer of the ZAFT dorms. His spirit-form was out of view. Athrun hung a little by the frame of his door. Why did the back of the boy's head remind him of something…or someone? His mind, slowly becoming more and more awake, reached out to tingle with the aura of Nicol's, still sound asleep, and the new roommate. But just as his aura reached the boy's, he was hit, suddenly, by a feeling all too familiar and utterly repulsive. Aegis' mini form recoiled, doubled over, showing signs of the thirst.

He should have accepted Nicol's offer.

He clapped his hand over his lips, as though trying to keep the fangs from protruding. Damn the after-affects of genetic manipulation. It struck all Coordinators with a condition that was scientifically called_ Cruor Appetence_, and though they didn't need as much sustenance as humans, their bodies demanded their blood. The more manipulation, the stronger the Coordinator, and the stronger the hunger. Like their problems with reproduction, their problems with instinct grew worse with each new generation, and had no answer as of yet.

He wanted to feed. Horrified, the rational part of his mind watched as the animal inside zoned in on the boy's blood, pulsating through veins covered by a blue tattoo. He would never give into the thirst. He retreated to his room, being careful not to slam the door.

"_That decides it, doesn't it?" _Aegis said, balanced precariously on his bedroom table. Aegis had flown in desperately, in an attempt to keep himself from spearing the spirit-form of the boy right through the rune, to feed on the life force of the essence inside.

"_Yes. We'll have to go and see Mr. Creuze for this."_

The boy was definitely Natural…or Natural enough, depending on what had caused the computers to fry. Athrun's thirst, strengthened over deprived sleep, would not have reacted so violently if he were Coordinator.

And if he stayed in the dorm, he'd be eaten in two weeks' time.

X x X 

_It was raining._

_Strange, that it was raining. Usually it was so sunny._

_But it rained anyway._

_Cagalli walked a little before her father, laughing at something at the side, then going back to him and showing him her newest discovery. Both were constantly shaking off droplets of water from their raincoats._

_Why did her father always look so sad?_

"_Cagalli, you'll be a ruler one day. That means that you'll have to know things that other people won't know."_

"_Like what Daddy?"_

"_Like some things about Coordinators. Rulers need to know what they need."_

"_But don't they need the same things as we do?"_

"_Yes, but they also need something else…"_

"_What else, Daddy?" she grinned at her father. He looked so sober, that Cagalli was certain that he was playing another trick on her._

"_Never mind," he patted the girl's head. "I'll tell you when you're older."_

Meyrin watched the girl with apprehension, her spirit-form Djinn in the newest model of a mobile suit, the models which were open in the market. The bodies of spirit-forms like Athrun's were custom made. The rest of the population, who either didn't have the means to have custom bodies or didn't have the ability to make such things, got their bodies off the store shelves.

The moody blonde had come into the room the night before. And though Lacus welcomed her as warmly as she did everyone, both she and Meyrin were apprehensive. The newcomer did not speak their Coordinator language, and her Common was stinted in many places.

Now, watching the small lump on the bed of the newcomer rise and fall, seeing the faint glow of her spirit-form, Meyrin noticed other things too. The girl—Cagalli—_breathed _more than regular Coordinators.

"_You're jumping to conclusions,"_ Lacus chastised lightly, trying to soften the tension in the atmosphere. Her spirit-form Eternal, strangely stuck in the body of a pink Haro, was settled in her hands, the spirit-form inside quiet for once. The princess was practically married to Meyrin's crush, Athrun Zala, but that didn't stop them from being friends.

"I don't know about that," Meyrin whispered back. Djinn hovered in the air, anxious. 

"_But even if she is Natural, that doesn't change anything."_

"_On the contrary, it changes many things."_

"_Why?"_

"_We can't room with a Natural!"_ she whispered in vehemence. _"For all our sakes."_

"_Well, technically, there isn't supposed to be divisions in this school anyway,"_ Lacus pointed out, stroking Eternal. The division between the Coordinator-Natural dorms was totally off-record. Classes were used to be held separately as well, but the government had gotten angry, saying that it created differences and encouraged bad feelings in a bicultural colony. So the school had changed its policies.

"_But they're here anyway, and for good reason!"_ It was for all their safety; it kept the Naturals from getting eaten and the Coordinators from getting staked.

Cagalli stirred, and the Rouge's glow strengthened. The girls stopped their whispering and pretended that they weren't talking about the strange girl as she, half-awake, stumbled through the room collecting her things, banging her way through the half-darkness.

X x X 

Ergghhh…sorry, not that good of a chapter. Keep reading though! Next one features Stellar, in "Stellar Goes to the Moon."


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** To reiterate: Do not own GS/D; do not own Witches of Willowmere; do not own His Dark Materials; do not own Twilight.

Vampires of Cornicupris

**5: Stellar Goes to the Moon**

Stellar: her mother thinks that Stellar is a normal girl. Ditzy, perhaps, strange, definitely. But normal enough to overlook her strange quirks. Her brother indulges her, gives her piggyback rides when she's tired (even though she has gotten heavier over the past few years).

Now, she's standing in the back of an alley, wiping blood off her long, long knife. Her own spirit-form is behind her, hungrily sucking the life out of the spirit-form of her prey.

Golden hair glinted in the sickly glow of an almost dead streetlight. The owner of the hair turned, backing out of an alley. Her hands were bloody. Her purple eyes, the only physical feature that she shared with her older brother, glanced concernedly at a green-haired, older boy.

"Stellar is sorry for leaving a mess," she said apologetically. Behind her lay a body, a second knife thrust in the chest, silencing the hateful beating of the modified creature's heart. Her spirit-form had stabbed each rune of the armour of her enemy. The life glow deadened.

He'd almost bitten her before she took action. Each time was swifter, and bloodier, than the last, and unlike Stellar's first predator-turned-prey, he didn't see it coming. Served the Coordinator bastard right for trying to defile the Earth with his presence.

Sting just shook his head. "It's alright. Don't worry about it." Awkwardly, he put a hand on her head, while staring into the darkness. Already he was making plans to call their leader, Lord Djibril, to tell him of Stellar's success, and to ask for clean-up crew and damage control.

"Took you long enough," another boy said in contempt. Auel had reluctantly tagged along to this night's stake-out, and was rather angry that he didn't get part of the action. Stellar immediately put Sting in between them, more so out of habit than out of fear.

"Stellar had to wait until the bad boy was going to eat her," she whined. Auel was so nitpicky at times. But it was true. Feeding time was the only time that Coordinators were vulnerable.

"Why do we have to be here anyway? You can do it yourself now."

"Stellar, Auel, give it a rest," Sting said tiredly. The assassination had gone on for far too long, and they shouldn't tarry. He took a phone out of his pocket, pressed speed-dial.

"Oakley," the voice greeted. The voice was as smooth as poisoned chocolate.

"It's done. Body burners are needed." The voice chuckled on the other end.

"Well put," he finally said. Coordinators didn't deserve burials. "Oakley, I need you, Neider, and Louissier on Cornicupris ASAP. Go to Lord Azrael for further instruction."

While Lord Djibril was a prominent member of the Earth Alliance, both he and the less-known though equally powerful Lord Azrael (who was an Alliance ambassador on Cornicupris) shared leadership of Blue Cosmos.

"Will do."

He snapped off the phone and turned to his comrades.

**X x X**

Caridad Yamato was worried about her daughter.

Caridad's spirit-form was currently taking abode in the body of a parrot. Call it old-fashioned, but Caridad and other adults still kept to the practice of getting hosts for their spirit forms.

Now the parrot her shoulder had eyes that glinted darkly. She knew what she was thinking.

Stellar Louissier Yamato was their only biological child. She was just a month old when they had adopted the Hibiki twins, though they gave Cagalli up a year after adoption to Lord Uzumi's custody (due to Blue Cosmos reasons). It was easy to make them appear as biological siblings; Stellar looked a little like Cagalli and had Kira's amethyst eyes (though, Caridad noted, they glinted more). Fate had swung in their favour in its decision of Stellar's genetics.

Stellar was always an eccentric child. She spoke in third person, for one. And she had been nearly hysterical when they broke the news to her that Kira would be going off to the Moon, though she calmed down enough to convince Kira that he could leave her and she'd be fine.

_Fine_ meaning that she'd only freak out if and only if they watched or said something that had to do with the 'd' word. It had been getting worse lately. The only reason why they didn't drag Stellar to a psychiatrist was because Kira had always been pretty good with calming her down. But Kira wasn't there anymore.

The Yamatos had multiple intentions for sending Kira to boarding school. One was to further his own education. Another was to give Stellar a little more independence.

Now Caridad was having second thoughts. Watching the glum little girl (_Little?_ Stellar was only a couple of years younger than Kira) across the table, she came to a decision.

They'd be moving to Cornicupris soon. The threat that the Seiran family posed was far too great to risk staying in a neutral country that might not even _stay_ neutral. They could pull it off.

"Stellar, would you like to go to Kira's school?"

**X x X**

Stellar couldn't believe her luck. She had been told that she needed to go to the Moon, and now she could, without her mom or her brother having to worry about her.

Now, as she rode on a shuttle, she said "Isn't it great?" to her non-responsive spirit-form. She hung limply on the armrest, ignoring her person. Stellar shrugged. She hadn't been speaking to Stellar much lately, animated only when hunting. Sometimes she talked to Strike, but that was about it.

_Stellar can look after Kira now,_ she thought with satisfaction. When she had first found out about the monsters, she had tried to tell Kira, but he wouldn't—couldn't—believe her. Then she didn't want him to worry about her, so she just pretended that they were nightmares. She found Sting and Auel soon after—or rather, they had found her—and she'd been with them ever since.

Her big brother made amused sounds whenever Auel came over. Sting wouldn't go over to her house though. Stellar wondered why. Sting just said it was because big brothers like Kira didn't take kindly to boys like himself when it came to little sisters. So it was Auel who'd go over and tell her the next one they were going to get rid of.

They were getting rid of the bad guys, they said. They said that bloodsuckers came from space and were hiding out, pretending to be people. They said that they were on the Earth to hurt people. People like Stellar. They said that it was their job to stop them. She had been distraught when Kira was going to go to Cornicupris, but Djibril promised to send someone to look after him, so she had let him go.

Now she'd be there with him.

* * *

_Hi! How was that? Yes, Stellar is "related" to Kira, and yup, she's a slayer! Review plz!_

_It would also be appreciated if someone can tell me who pilots Gaea, Abyss, and Chaos (the three Gundams that were stolen in the beginning of GS/D…not sure if I got their names right). Yeah, they keep switching Mobile Suits so much I don't really know who pilots what anymore._

_Thanks for reading!_


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** standard

Vampires of Cornicupris

**6: Picking up Stellar**

_Kira was having that dream again._

_"Not this again," he heard Strike groan distantly. Kira's mind didn't really register Strike's comment though. Unlike his spirit-form, Kira wasn't actually aware while he dreamed._

_It was that same sequence again. Walking through the woods, he heard something snap behind him. He looked, even though he knew nothing was there. Just like he knew how he was going to be attacked any moment now. His heart started thudding. It was so strange, to be in this sequence for what felt like a thousandth time. Like watching a horror movie, knowing that the monster was just around the corner, but jumping anyway, even though one knew it was going to happen._

_Strike started to calm Kira down before things got too violent._

"_Don't worry, Kira. Remember that this is just a dream," he said just as Kira's heart rate began to escalate. His dream self started to run. "Kira, there's nothing to fear," Strike insisted. Kira's dream self wasn't listening. A blinding pain ran through him—_

Kira woke up, gasping. His heart was pounding, and perspiration ran down his face. Strike climbed into his hands. "Kira, it was just a dream," he soothed. The ten-year-old scar on Kira's neck burned. Kira closed his eyes again, exhausted but too afraid to go back to sleep.

Soon enough, a hum fought his way through his thoughts.

"Stellar?" he whispered automatically, forgetting for the moment that Stellar was not on the same terrestrial body, let alone the same building. The humming sound always broke when she was near. How strange.

Then the phone rang, causing him to jump. It rang two more times before he summoned enough energy to hit the receive button. It was his mother, and she had very surprising news.

Stellar was coming to town. A few strings were pulled, a friend was called, and Stellar was given a place and a timetable, right in time for orientation.

"Now I know this is very short notice," Caridad was saying, "but could you perhaps pick up your sister? She's already been placed in the Alliance rooms. Just pick up her uniform, okay? Goodness knows what she and Gaea will get into all by themselves." Kira immediately agreed, both he and Strike thinking in the back of their mind that if Stellar and Gaea could lose themselves while exploring their own neighborhood, having them by themselves in a city could be disastrous.

Sighing, he hung up the phone, and got up, squinting a little in the light of artificial dawn. "Put on your uniform, Kira," Strike advised. "So we won't have to come back for it later during orientation."

Clumsily, he pulled on his uniform, checking himself in the hall mirror. The red blazer was a tad too big for him. His fingertips barely reached the edges. Strike suppressed a snicker.

"Umm…you'll grow into it?" he offered unconvincingly. Kira just shook his head, lost for the right words to admonish his spirit-form. Kira lowered an arm, and Strike clambered to his shoulder, pausing a minute, like he always did, at a small blue scar at the base of his Kira's neck, all that remained of the 'gift' from…whatever it was…that mauled him years ago in the woods. Strangely, Strike always said that it reminded him of a fire-bird in flight.

But while Strike held a strange fascination for it, Kira was always self-conscious of it. After the incident, Stellar had given him a silver collar, coated with onyx dye, to cover up the marks. He put it on now, fixing the two pieces into place.

While he did this, he felt Strike stiffen suddenly, noticing the presence of another spirit-form, awake and quite close. He turned around, barely catching a glimpse of blue hair and a pale face before it was concealed behind a door. Something small and red had disappeared with it.

"Shy roommate?" Strike asked. Neither he nor Kira spoke of a strange feeling that they had, the feeling that told them that the roommate had been watching them for a while.

It was Strike who broke the silence. "Gaea's here," he said, his mind sensing Gaea's presence.

Kira shrugged, trying to shake away the uncomfortable feeling. "Come on then, we don't want to make Stellar wait," he said.

As he walked toward the school, he spotted some other early risers on the other side. Their uniform was different from his. The girl was dressed in pink, the guy, in blue. He raised a hand in greeting, but saw that they pursed their lips and turned around, leaving behind waves of hostility.

"What was that about?" he asked Strike. Strike, whose powers of empathy were greater than his (being a telepathic being, and all), shook his head.

"They think that we are different—in a dangerous way." Kira couldn't make sense of that statement.

"Why do they feel threatened?" he asked. Strike couldn't come up with an answer either.

They continued to look down the path that the couple disappeared to, before heading down the school.

"Hello," he said to the administrator. "I'm here to pick up a uniform for my sister, Stellar Louissier Yamato."

The secretary, Ms. Talia Gladys, was busy on the phone, and handed him a package, only looking up once it was in his hands. He saw her take in his attire, glance back at the pink package, and then her expression changed to one of question. Her spirit-form, currently in the model of a strange warship, was hovering close to her. But Kira knew that if that spirit-form had eyes, they were probably staring wide at him in shock.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, feeling increasingly uncomfortable under her scrutiny. On the phone, he could hear the person on the other line say "Hello? Are you still there? Hello?"

"No, nothing's wrong," she said smoothly, turning back to her caller. Kira just shook his head, and went out the door.

People sure were antsy in the morning.

**X x X**

At the port, Stellar was patiently tracking a small purple dot on her computer screen.

"Kira's almost here!" Stellar squealed excitedly.

"Strike," Gaea whispered, her voice so quiet that Stellar wondered whether or not she heard her right. But when she looked at the spirit-form, Gaea was already looking somewhere else.

Gaea hadn't been speaking to Stellar much lately, ever since the operation. But the operation and the needles, and all kinds of unpleasant things, were needed. They were needed to keep the bloodsuckers out of their minds. They were needed to help them be able to kill them.

Stellar figured that Gaea would start talking to her again. She didn't really remember what their last conversation was. Something about the ocean…

Stellar looked around the building while keeping an eye on the dot, quickly moving towards her own. Not many people were there. It was predictable. Coordinators and Naturals weren't supposed to get along. Having an entire country try to convince the universe otherwise wasn't going to change that behaviour.

Auel and Sting weren't there yet. They had "prior commitments," whatever they were, and they had to—slowly—break them before they could come.

But that could be weeks and weeks away. Gaea would be lonely, she thought, without Chaos and Abyss there. But at least she'd be with Strike.

Gaea perked up all of a sudden, apparently feeling Strike coming closer. About five seconds after, Stellar saw her brother, her eyes flickering towards his black silver collar. Guiltily, she shut off her computer program before he saw it and started asking questions about her tracking devices.

"Kira!" she said, running towards him, clumsily because of her bags. Her voice reverberated through the nearly empty port. She almost tripped and fell when she got close to him, but his fast reflexes caught her arm in time, pulling her into an embrace which she happily returned. She absently stroked his collar. "Kira took a while," she accused in a quieter voice.

**X x X**

"Ah, I'm sorry Stellar," Kira said, grinning as he looked at this blonde sister. Her happiness was infectious, and he felt all the strain of the earlier morning fall away. Gaea had joined Strike on his left shoulder, so Kira precariously juggled the two hitchhikers and picked up Stellar's bags. "How are Mother and Father doing?"

"Mommy's okay. Daddy's working all the time though," Stellar answered. But she sounded said. Kira and Strike looked at each other.

"Are Gaea and Stellar lonely?" Strike asked carefully.

"No, not always. Stellar's friends come over to see her," Stellar said, but the feelings of unhappiness still continued to pour forth, with something else…anger, almost, lurking beneath it. Kira tried to sort out the catastrophe of feelings that came from her, but to no avail.

Caridad always said that Kira was a good reader of people. He always seemed to know what they meant, what they were feeling. Of course, it only applied if, one, he knew the person, and two, if he was trying to "read" the person in the first place. Which was why he tended to "stay out" of the minds of his friends and acquaintances, if it could be called that…it seemed wrong, somehow, to "go into" the mind of another person when they didn't need it. Like an invasion of privacy, almost. He only did it when the person was trying to convey something that words alone couldn't convey.

It was a skill that he had to improve because of Stellar's outbursts. If he could understand her emotions better, he could get her calmed down faster before she could hurt herself. But, he had to admit, Stellar was getting more surprising day by day.

Ever since she started having those nightmares, a little voice in his mind said. Perhaps it was Strike talking to him.

Ever since she had those nightmares and met Auel, she seemed more…distant, he figured was the word. And Gaea had grown colder.

He often wondered what Stellar was up to when she said she was going over to play. But she seemed so happy, now that she finally found a friend (for other children never wanted to play with her) that he didn't want to break them up.

"Does Stellar miss Auel?" he found himself asking.

"Yes, and Stellar misses Sting too." Kira barely managed to conceal his flinch at the second boy's name. Auel's big brother hung around Auel and Stellar too much for comfort. At least he never came calling to the house.

"Well, Stellar's here now, and she'll find more friends, right?" he said, attempting to cheer her up, at the same time biting his tongue because he broke his promise to _never_ speak in third person to her.

This seemed to do the trick, however. Stellar looked happier, and the feelings of sadness seemed to pause in its flow, replaced with feelings of optimism.

"Are people here nice, Kira?" she asked. The only sound heard was that of Strike and Gaea having their own conversation as Kira chose his answer carefully. The two people he met earlier in the day were not that "nice," as Stellar would put it.

"They're nice enough. Just don't talk to them in the morning," he said lightly, shifting the weight over. This seemed to satisfy Stellar.

"Stellar's alright with that. Stellar doesn't like to be talked to in the morning either," she stated. Kira grimaced good-naturedly.

"As I have found out the hard way."

Stellar just laughed.

* * *

_Hi again! Thanks for reading!_

_The next chapter will be about their orientation, where the newcomers will meet the ZAFT guys (i.e. Athrun, Nicol, Dearka, Yzak, Shinn, Meyrin, Lunamaria, etc. etc.) Umm…only Athrun and Meyrin will suspect their queer roommates to be Natural, and throughout the next few chapters they'll be trying to convince their fellows that Kira and Cagalli aren't as they seem. Meanwhile, Lacus will be acting up, Athrun will find it nearly impossible to be around either of them (for a reason which will be revealed), and Kira and Cagalli will start getting closer._


	7. Chapter 7

**disclaimer:** standard

Vampires of Cornicupris

**7: Orientation Part 1**

Athrun and Nicol were the first to arrive at their orientation, which began at the cafeteria. Slowly, others began to arrive. Among others, there was Shinn, then the Hawke sisters, Lunamaria and Meyrin, Lacus, and Yzak and Dearka, the latter being dragged in by the former.

Athrun had been with most of these people through his prep military-style school back at the PLANTs. He, Nicol, Dearka, and Yzak were expected to take a place in politics alongside their parents, and rules had stated that they had to spend much of their education abroad—to get a better grip on the world outside. However, going to Earth was not even an option, and Heliopolis was a small colony—not even the size of one PLANT. So going to Cornicupris had been the most logical choice.

Dearka and Yzak were like brothers, Athrun thought, though they were as different as night and day—their common ground being that they both distasted Naturals and they both took their work seriously (though Dearka had a strange way of showing it). Their scents, however, were quite similar—they both smelled of metal and earth, but in a good way.

"_No way, Athrun_," Nicol shook his head, disbelieving. He sent waves of pine scent around the air as he did so, most of them in Athrun's general direction. Each person, whether it was Natural or Coordinator, carried a particular scent with them, as unique as a fingerprint. Athrun always liked Nicol's scent, though since that was a piece of information that wasn't shared between two men comfortably, Athrun had kept that to himself.

Blitz, on Nicol's shoulder, asked, "_Remember what you said about the computers_?"

"_I'm sorry I brought that up then_," Athrun said, not the least bit resigned. "_But he is Natural_."

Nicol looked into his friend's determined face. "_Well, maybe he's a bit of both._"

"_But he can't be a half-breed_," Aegis said, siding with Athrun. "_There aren't any_."

"_Guys, shush_," Blitz said. "_I can feel him coming_." And as if on cue, the boy entered the cafeteria room. The cuffs on the blazer were rolled up twice, making the kid look smaller than he actually was. His scent, Athrun noticed, not muffled by any blanket and not clouded by lack of sleep, was floral, earthy…like fresh rain on roses. Saliva started building up in Athrun's mouth. _Tasty,_ his mind told him. He shook the thought away. He could deal with his increasingly jumpy hunter instincts later.

More importantly, his thoughts were unprotected by any Coordinator strength. When Athrun focused, he could hear faint whispers coming from his mind. There seemed to be more than one voice, which was strange in itself, but the fact that he couldn't cloud his thoughts so that they were open for any Coordinator to read was proof enough that he was Natural.

Triumphantly, Athrun turned to Nicol. "_Well?_"

"_Well, what?_" Nicol asked, confused.

"_Do you hear that_?"

"_Hear what?_" Athrun just looked at him, dumbfounded.

"_Nicol, if you try listening to his head, you can hear his thoughts_." Nicol, looking unconvinced, but wanting to pacify his friend, he concentrated.

"_I don't hear anything_," Nicol said finally. He looked at Athrun, concerned. "_Are you sure that you've taken enough blood? You know what Ms. Gladys says: if you haven't taken enough, your mind becomes more animal than human. Your senses get all out of whack and just drive you to eat_."

"_I'm sure that it was enough," _Athrun said, exasperated. But after this was said, he and Nicol realized that no one in the cafeteria was talking. Looking back at the newcomer, he saw why.

The kid had brought someone with him. A girl in a pink uniform, signaling that she belonged to the Alliance dorms. She wore a silver headband-like structure, which went from temple to temple, on the back of her head, which was part of the uniform of Naturals which ensured that Coordinators who had advanced telepathic abilities—like Athrun and Shinn—wouldn't try to break into their minds. Another silver piece, this one as a strange earring tucked behind the ear, would block their "loud" thoughts from being read by Coordinators in general.

Coordinators wouldn't wear those. They had a pretty bad skin allergy to silver (another side affect of _Cruor Appentance_). There was absolutely no doubt that that blonde was Natural. And they had come in together. Touching. Forget touching, she was _clinging_ to him. But even more shocking was that both spirit-forms were riding on her shoulder.

"_Then if he's a Coordinator, then why is he letting his spirit-form come into contact with a Natural_?" he asked Nicol. Spirit-forms of Coordinators rarely came into physical contact with Naturals—it would be too easy, with the life-force of the Natural so close, for instinct to take over. Truthfully, it was harder on their spirit-forms to be in control then it was for the Coordinators themselves.

"_I don't know_," answered Nicol. _"Maybe he's stronger than he looks."_

"_Or weaker," _Aegis said, but quietly so that only Athrun heard.

Shinn, resting his eyes with his head on the table, awoke at the sudden lack of noise, looked over at everybody's object of interest, and distinctly muttered, _"Natural-loving freak_." This statement, of course, was heard by the majority of Coordinators and some unlucky Naturals who had to sit at the fringe of Coordinator-Natural territory. Everyone seemed to agree to this, and the noise level rose again.

"_Oh, I don't know," _Nicol said. _"I think it's nice—intermingling and stuff. We should do more of it." _Shinn just scowled.

The couple parted, the blonde going over to the Alliance side, the kid going over to the ZAFT side. Nicol waved him over, to Shinn's annoyance.

"_Who's the broad_?" asked Dearka with a grin. Athrun sighed. Dearka didn't really care if a girl was Natural or Coordinator as long as she was pretty.

"_That _girl," the kid said, raising an eyebrow up, by smiling at the same time, "_is my _sister" His command of Ủsré was pretty good, though he spoke with a dialect that was different than any that Athrun heard of, with a slight accent. He had to admit--grudgingly--that this _Natural_ was rather good.

Nicol looked at him, and Athrun knew that the kid's knowledge of the PLANT language was evidence that backed up Nicol's opinion of Kira's Coordinator state.

But the rest of the crowd already seemed to think that the kid was a Coordinator. Some looks were exchanged at this statement, but the atmosphere became less tense. If this kid was a first-generation—which he obviously was because of the Natural state of his sister—then it would make sense that he was more comfortable around Naturals then they were used to being.

"_That's Dearka for you," _Nicol said, laughing. _"I'm Nicol, by the way." _The younger boy shifted position to accommodate him. Kira's scent was much closer now, not overriding the others, but merely mingling with them, shifting through them like how the thousands of little whispers coming forth from his mind mingled with the other voices.

Athrun frowned. Usually, at a closer distance, the voices would become more distinct. But they were equally unintelligible when the kid—Kira—was just inches from him as they were when he was across the room. He forced himself to listen what this newcomer had to say.

"_I'm Kira. I just transferred here from Heliopolis."_ Shinn snorted. Athrun knew—though Shinn was a much better telepath then he was and would not appreciate the intrusion into his mind—that Shinn was probably thinking more ("happy") thoughts on Natural-loving earthen Coordinators. Impulse, hanging off the edge of the table, did little more than glance at Kira's spirit-form, who had jumped off his person and was engaging in conversation with Blitz and Buster. Duel was at the sidelines of their little mecha cluster, not really in the conversation but coming to size up yet another rival.

"_And this is Athrun,"_ Nicol was saying, gesturing to Athrun on his other side. Kira glanced at him.

"_I think we might have met briefly this morning,"_ he said wryly, still smiling. Athrun kept calm as he came up with an excuse.

"_Yeah, sorry about that. I didn't think anyone was in the hall when I came out—"_

"_Naked, probably,"_ Dearka joked. There was a rumble of laughter, even though if another person said it, the same joke would have received rolled eyeballs and grimaces. That was Dearka's special talent, that he was charismatic. If he felt like it, it would be impossible for someone to feel down around him. On the other hand, his counterpart Yzak had a knack for getting people to be serious and focused, and/or intimidated. So they made a pretty good balance.

But suddenly, Athrun's attention was yanked away from the light mood. Another scent had invaded. It was ten times stronger than Kira's, and the boy's rosy smell, and everyone's smell, for that matter, was muffled instantly under the smell of spice and wonder. For someone else had come in, and instantly, his mind told him that this person was simply and utterly _delicious_.


	8. Chapter 8

**disclaimer:** standard

Vampires of Cornicupris

**8: Orientation Part 2**

Cagalli and Rouge entered the cafeteria, and were met by a sea of noise.

Well, not really.

There were fourteen people in all, but they had the volume of a hundred students. All the ZAFT people were on one side, and all the Alliance people were on the other. She could see Lunamaria, whose picture she had seen in the room she shared with Meyrin, talking to one blue-haired boy. But she wasn't the only one. From the looks of it, the blue-haired kid had gathered himself a small fan club.

She couldn't see the attraction.

"He feels dangerous," Rouge whispered. "Do you feel it? The air around him is pressed." Cagalli had to agree. She could feel it: a strange sort of air about him, marking him as one that should be avoided. She shook her head at the thought, letting her attention move to other people.

Kira was off on one side, close to the blue-haired teen. He was the only one in the sea of red and green that she'd feel comfortable sitting with. She hesitated a moment, somehow reluctant to go near Blue, and Meyrin swept right by her, Djinn on her shoulder, already shouting across the room to the guy. "She's very enthusiastic, isn't she?" a gentle voice asked. Cagalli jumped, and stared at the pink-haired girl who had suddenly appeared behind her. Lacus had spoken in Common, probably out of courtesy.

"L-Lacus?," she stammered. "Sorry, I didn't see you there." Lacus looked confused at her answer, and Cagalli realized that she had spoken in the Earth language. She shook her head and repeated the phrase in Common. Then she gestured towards the gaggle around Blue. "Is he the prince at this school or something?"

"That's actually the man I'm going to marry one day," Lacus answered. Cagalli could only stare.

"Wow. I didn't know that you were a fan girl!"

Lacus laughed, cradling Eternal in her hands, but Cagalli could hear a twinge of sadness in her voice. "No, that's not what I meant! I do mean that we are getting married. We've been promised to one another since birth."

Cagalli felt a pang of sympathy. Her father had almost made her have an arranged marriage. The only way out of that was to move to Cornicupris. Something in Lacus' tone made her feel that Lacus was no less unhappy, though far more willing, to go along with her parents' plans.

"Oh, well, I'm sorry," she said, a little clumsily.

"Oh, it's not that bad. Athrun's a nice guy. I'm sure we'll have a happy future together." Lacus was still smiling, but Cagalli's built-in truth meter told her that she wasn't telling the full truth. Then something seemed to catch Lacus' attention. She peered inside for a second, as though looking for someone. Shaking her head, she turned her gaze onto a questioning Cagalli.

"But you don't feel comfortable with this?"

Lacus looked at her, vaguely surprised. "It's for the best, I'm sure, but as much as I like Athrun…I don't think that what we have is quite up to par with what my parents had." She had a look of deep contemplation, before she shook herself out of her sad reflective state.

"Oops. Sorry, I didn't mean to blab to you about any misgivings." She looked slightly perturbed, as if wondering how in the world she was compelled to spill her guts to a relative stranger. Cagalli tensed. Besides Kira, Lacus was the first "friend" she had at this new school. She'd be loathe to loose her.

But Lacus just shook her head again. "Just please don't tell anyone, okay?" Cagalli nodded. Lacus broke into a grin, putting her hands together. "Now, let me introduce you to a few more people."

He sad tone was totally gone, as if the "private" moment that transpired between them had never occurred. She was leading Cagalli straight to the table that Blue was sitting at. Strangely, part of her was panicking at the thought of going near Blue, and she didn't know why. Rouge also shared the same sentiments, only to a worse degree, and took refuge under her collar.

"I need to stay here," Rouge hissed. Cagalli nodded, feeling her need. After Lacus finished the introduction, she glanced once again at Blue, before something else caught her attention.

Another dangerous one.

There was a guy there, sitting at the end of the table, with red eyes, glaring at her. His spirit-form, like a warped version of Kira's, jumped off him, landing on the table with a sound that was disproportionate to his size. Rouge tensed, ready to meet his challenge, despite whatever feelings she had about Blue's spirit-form. Cagalli's eyes narrowed. Unlike Blue, she felt no predatory air from this guy; he was just full of hatred and misguided ego.

But before what appeared to be an inevitable showdown could unfold, Kira was at her shoulder.

"A girl?" he asked, sounding shocked. Cagalli whirled around. Yes, she had opted for pants instead of a skirt, but she didn't think she'd look that indistinguishable.

"Yes I'm a girl!" she said angrily. Red behind her snickered. Part of her wanted to go over there and ask him what his problem was. But he had already looked away, in conversation with some girly-looking blonde.

"You know, if you hit him now, you'll just look silly," Kira advised. Cagalli huffed. Well, if she had to re-direct her venom at someone, it might as well be this annoying guy.

Lacus had already taken a seat while Cagalli was occupied with Red. She smiled as Cagalli passed, but she noticed that, strangely, the Phase Shift Armour of her Haro model was glowing brightly.

X x X

As usual, Athrun was surrounded by a mass of people. Both he and Lacus were incredibly popular, and even some Naturals held some grudging admiration for the couple. It was small wonder that their genes were declared compatible at birth.

Lacus made her way to them now, and the girls parted to let her through, though they were more reluctant to let her blonde friend through—"Cagalli," Djinn whispered. But all Meyrin could think was: _Oh great, another competitor._

Athrun could be considered a playboy, Meyrin thought. Both she and her sister had a (slight) crush on him, and Lacus was his future wife. And most of the girls (and, Meyrin suspected, some of the guys) wanted to date him. Not that he knew, of course. For a telepathic, he was amazingly, sweetly, so charmingly _dense_. Djinn had remarked once that it was a good thing; if he did know the thoughts of the girls around him, then he'd probably run out of the school.

Meyrin was a rabid fan girl once, convinced that she could take his heart and break up his engagement, claiming him for herself.

Then she had met Lacus, and she felt guilty for ever thinking such a thing. So she gave up her dreams of having him as her boyfriend. She swore ever day in the mirror to no longer flirt, to no longer blush every time he addressed her. That plan came tumbling down the moment she saw him. It was just something about him made him irresistible to be around.

"_Well, we can always dream now, can't we?"_ murmured Djinn, who was looking longingly at Aegis' red armour. Though it was Djinn who talked her out of her stalker-crush stage, she didn't deny that she looked up to Aegis. Meyrin blushed, a faint, gray blush that was typical of Coordinators, and shushed her as Aegis looked their way.

"_Remember our deal: you stop looking at Aegis, I'll stop looking at Athrun," _Meyrin muttered, trusting that Lunamaria's rabid conversation would occupy Athrun's attention.

"_Yeah, well, we're both losing on our deal, now aren't we?"_ Djinn said. She cocked her miniature mecha head, studying Aegis. _"Aegis is looking kind of tense today,"_ she remarked. _"All his armour has gone up."_

Meyrin looked over. Sure enough, Aegis' armour was gleaming, glowing slightly, coated with what was called Phase Shift Armour. On any other Coordinator, or even Natural, this was expected; Phase Shift Armour was a second line of defence, or a tool of concentration. Only in a relaxed environment was the armour down.

Before the time of Coordinators, the Phase Shift Armour came on whenever a large amount of concentration was needed, making the host gleam and glow. A spirit-form turning on Phase Shift Armour was kind of like how their person would block out certain things by erecting mental barriers.

In contemporary times, it also helped to keep out any telepathic Coordinators who'd attempt to hack into the person via putting "suggestions" into the spirit-form.

A function of Phase Shift Armour, that lasted from age to age, was its uses during a spirit-form battle, when will went against will, but Athrun didn't look threatened at the moment, so she didn't think that Aegis was putting up armour to prepare for an attack. So it must mean that both he and Athrun were trying their hardest to focus.

But as horribly boring as Lunamaria's rants were, she didn't think it called for _that_ much attention. Something must have been distracting them, worrying them.

Worried, Meyrin studied Athrun more closely, and sure enough, once she packed away her fan-girl thoughts and little-sister admirations, she could see that he looked incredibly tense. Luna paused to take a breath, and Meyrin took this chance to ask:

"_Athrun? Are you okay?" _He looked over at her, and she tried to control her blushing with minimal success.

"_Yeah, I'm fine,"_ Athrun said smoothly. But even as he said it, Aegis' armour glowed more brightly. Meyrin ignored the blatant lie.

"_You look a little…tense. Is something bothering you?" _Athrun paused, as if considering whether or not to let her in on a big secret. She continued: _"Because if there is, you know you can always talk to me, right?" _Blood was gushing to her cheeks now, and other girls around her whispered catty phrases among themselves, questioning her motives.

"_Thanks, Meyrin," _Athrun said finally, smiling a smile that looked almost relieved. _"That means a lot to me."_

Meyrin made herself content with this answer, and settled back, Djinn prompting her to give the spotlight back to Luna before her blobby red spirit-form Zaku came over to try and squish her…_again._


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: **standard

Vampires of Cornicupris

**9: Tea**

Sting Oakley was sitting in front of a large stone building, at a small cafe whose entrance was surrounded by greenery. His cover story was typical: he was a student from Heliopolis, studying post-secondary at Cornicupris. His "little brother" Auel was probably skipping the first day of school in favor of studying the new battleground.

Of the three of them, only Stellar was with her own family. Both Sting and Auel were raised in the Blue Cosmos community. They didn't know their parents.

His spirit-form Chaos was elsewhere, staking out the buildings and finding possible pregnant women they'd have to deal with later. Until then, he had another empty mecha near his elbow to compensate for his absence. Spirit-forms could separate from their persons for a while, Coordinator spirit-forms being able to separate longer, before they started to feel pain, but normal Naturals and even Coordinators disliked the separation, and often had to have a "comfort toy" on hand until the spirit-form came back.

Not that Sting needed it. Like the other Extendeds, his operation made it possible for the spirit-forms to separate completely without any discomfort. But people would get suspicious, if they saw him without spirit-form or comfort toy, so he brought one along anyway.

In front of him was an angelic looking man, with white-blonde hair and innocent blue eyes. Using an almost obsolete tradition, his spirit-form was housed in the body of a golden monkey, which he held in his lap, almost like a child would carry a favourite stuffed animal. His voice held an amused lilt, the tone and the sound attractive enough to earn glances from passing, giggling females, who of course had no idea what the context of his dialogue was, otherwise they'd be running in the other direction.

Not that they'd know what he was talking about anyway. Both Sting and the man spoke swiftly in Ghia, while many around them understood only Common. Which was why they could speak openly in a public place about gang warfare. This man was none other than the infamous Lord Azrael, the leader of the Blue Cosmos faction settled in Cornicupris. His smile was wide, sincere, and very, very lethal.

"So you, agent Neider, and agent Louissier were sent here under orders of Lord Djibril?" he asked, sounding amused. He stirred the tea in front of him.

"Yes, sir."

"And where are the other two?"

"Undercover at their school, I believe." The man raised his eyebrows, stroking the fur of the golden monkey.

"Why are they wasting time at school when they could be training with the others?" The monkey left his lap to play with a group of white butterflies that fluttered near them. Azrael watched him, his fingers pressed together. Sting observed the monkey catch a butterfly and proceed to rip its wings off before answering.

"Mingling with others keeps us less suspicious."

Azrael made a noise of disatisfaction. "We shouldn't be ashamed of what we fight for."

"But nevertheless we must hide for now, or else we'll be caught before we've even started."

Azrael inclined his head, conceding to his point.

"We have been having trouble over at this end," Azrael said, now finished with the formal introductions and polite inquiries.

"Sir?"

"It's not the usual trouble--getting inside men into the government, dealing with the Coordinator-sympathizers--that's what all Blue Cosmos leaders have to do." He turned his head, facing Sting for the first time in their conversation. "But there are matters with a group of Coordinators who don't seem to want to lie down and let us roll over them." His tone was one that sounded as though he were gently chastising a small child. He shook his head sadly.

"Is there a name for this group, sir?"

"No. Rather ingenious actually, not naming themselves," Azrael grimaced, apparently pained at having to admit the competence of Coordinators.

"Why is that, sir?"

"Because without a name, ordinary civilians are forced to identify them with the rest of the Coordinators. Then they can get the rest of the Coordinators to do what they want, because they think that they're the same group, and have the same ideas. So they can do all the same things that we do--manipulation, extortion, hybrid killing, whatever--and no one can lay blame on anybody except the rest of the Coordinators. Do you see what kind of control this group has over that filthy race, uniting them all in one cause?"

Sting caught his train of thought. "But civilians can continue to separate Natural civilians from Blue Cosmos."

"Exactly. Do you see how this can work in our favour?"

"Please tell me, sir."

Azrael leaned across the table.

"If we stir up enough trouble with this group, we can convince the rest of our Natural brethren, who have yet to see the light, that Coordinators indeed are dangerous."

"How do we do that, sir?"

"We play like children, really," Azrael admitted. "We have scheduled street fights, scheduled meetings..."

"And ordinary people don't know about this?"

"They _do_ know... to some extent. They just think that its a group of trouble-making teenagers, and hope that it goes away."

"And what about the mecha-battles?

Azrael grinned happily, like a child finding a new toy. "Oh, so you know about those already! I'm very glad."

"But how is sending our mechas to battle, and not ourselves, going to help?"

"Because we can make so much damage to our Coordinator enemies through their spirit forms! And having our spirit-forms fight is much less conspicous then going out ourselves armed to the teeth! Too much bodily battle will force the authorities to look into the matter, and I'd really like it if we can minimize outside interference. Do you understand?"

"So the next scheduled battle is...?"

"Next week, Monday, at midnight, downtown. It's a spirit-form battle, so you won't have to go yourselves. Your spirit-form knows who to bring."

"Yes, sir."

Azrael then steered the conversation away to good sight-seeing locations on Cornicupris, though in between the lines, Sting knew that he was telling him the locations of the other battles.

**X x X**

Stellar looked longingly at her big brother over at the other side. There were about twenty-eight new students gathered in this one place, fourteen belonging in the ZAFT dorms and fouteen belonging to the Alliance dorms. And Auel was not among the fourteen Alliance members. She was lonely over at this end. Gaea too, was focused on Strike rather than to the rambles of the principle, Ms. Ramius.

"Now, please follow your assigned vice principals," Ms. Ramius was saying, her common slightly accented with the Earth language, Ghia, waving over to the one man and two women over at the side, "you can take a tour of the school." She gave a short bow at the scattered applause.

Stellar got up, scooping up Gaea in one hand, to stand in line before a strict-looking, black-haired woman Ms. Ramius had introduced as a Ms. Badjiruel. Ms. Badjiruel seemed to be in charge of all the students in the Alliance dorms, all the students in the ZAFT dorms splitting off to join a Mr. Waltfeld or a Ms. Aisha. But on her way, she tripped over one of the bags in the cafeteria. She expected to fall, but was caught by the elbow by someone. She looked up, and was greeted by bright red eyes.

He asked a question in Usre, using a rather gruff tone. Unlike her brother, Stellar didn't understand the Coordinator language--and was advised by Sting to not even bother to try and understand it. But this boy seemed to want an answer.

"Stellar is sorry, but she doesn't know what he is saying," she said in Ghia.

The boy looked confused.

"But Stellar is thankful that he saved her from falling," she continued, bowing a short bow like she saw Kira do sometimes. Then she headed over to Ms. Badjiruel, who was already talking to the assembled students.

**X x X**

Shinn continued to look after the strange blonde girl. He had absolutely no idea what she just said, but he had a feeling that it was something along the lines of "Thank-you." He didn't understand Ghia, and so far only understood the basics of Common. He shook his head. The only thing that he got out of their dialogue was that she referred to herself as "Stellar," and that she talked in third person.

_"She's part of Alliance, Shinn,"_ Impulse said in a warning tone.

_"I know that!"_ he snapped. He walked over to his own vice principle, a Ms. Aisha. He glared distastefully at a "Ms. Yula" who was--thankfully--not in the same group. The princess of Orb was no stranger to him. He had spent months cursing her family's name.

_"I wonder why she's here undercover," _he muttered softly.

_"We shouldn't care,"_ Impulse said, his Armour glowing in intense hatred. He shook his head and changed the topic. _"We got another call. Faith's just sent me a message." _This caught Shinn's attention.

_"Where and when?"_

_"Next week, Monday, at midnight. Downtown."_


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: **standard

**Author note:** if you have any memorable GS/D quotes (and if you can recall Stellar and Shinn's conversation on the island) plz tell me! I want to include as much dialogue in the GS/D universe and incorporate them into this one.

It's probably getting confusing as to which language is being spoken, so:

_Italics--Usre (Coordinator language)_

**Bold-Ghia (Natural language)**

Regular--Common

Vampires of Cornicupris

**10: A Tense Lounge**

**Scene: The Staff Administrator Lounge**

Andrew could feel the rage emanating from Natarle as he casually poured himself a cup of his own brewed coffee. This particular concoction consisted of hot water, an array of coffee beans, a hint of cream, and a quarter of a cup of heated blood. He ran his tongue over his teeth after he took a sip, barely missing cutting it on the sharper-than-normal canines. Tiger, his spirit-form, mockingly bowed his wolf-like mechanical head to the condescending form of the Dominion. The miniature battle ship was sleek, black, and polished, bearing none of the damages it sustained a few days ago.

She had come in minutes after he did, resenting his presence but too proud to leave.

There was territory conflict happening in the school too.

Leaning against the wall next to the Coordinator coffee machine, he raised an eyebrow and good-naturedly asked, "How's the arm?"

He smiled at her glare.

"It's doing fine, thank-you," she said coldly. Then, adding in what seemed to be a veiled insult (which was out of the ordinary for such a straightforward person), she asked icily, "How's yours?"

"Also on the mend, considering the blow you dealt it on the weekend," he said lightly. "Too bad it all amounted to nothing."

She gave a curt nod. Both renegade sides were exceedingly angry that they weren't able to take control of the surrounding territory. All the territories, though they were still feuded over and changed hands countless of times, were nevertheless under some kind of ownership. The control of the school grounds was still up in the air, though the school itself was considered neutral gang territory, to be exploited by each side in whatever way possible until some mutually decided point of time was reached, at which point fighting would break out in the halls. Until that time, both groups on the inside had to play nicely...at least until the renegade groups had more control in the education board. For some reason, breaking cultural tolerance and acceptance was harder than expected in this country, though they were nevertheless expected to fall.

And though Murrue was principal of this school, she had equal power to the Coordinators who "worked under her." The fact that all the staff and most of the students were on opposite sides often made for a very harsh learning environment.

But Andrew had to concede that, for a secret recruitment centre, and for a point of annoyance to both renegade groups, the school was flourishing academically, intramurally, and in any other way a school could gain reputation. But then, that was the point of the success of the school. The more success, the more outside students. The more outside students, the more members joined.

He was amazed that the local authorities hadn't caught on to their activities. Perhaps that was because they were still under the impression that it was just a small, localized matter, when really, territories were being claimed in order for complete control of the bicultural country. Perhaps they didn't want to see what was right in front of them. Or perhaps the renegade groups just had too many inside men for the real authorities to do anything.

The door to the lounge opened, and Aisha walked in, her spirit-form Oasis inside a model that was identical to Tiger's, though pink where his was orange. She gratefully took a cup of coffee from Andrew, turned to Natarle and asked, "How's the arm?"

Before she could make a retort, the door opened again, and Murrue entered. "Gentleman, ladies," she greeted, her spirit-form Archangel hovering slightly above her shoulder. She made a breif eye contact with one of her counterparts, Andrew, and he nodded in reply. She headed for the Natural coffee machine, Archangel covering her back as she did so.

"Where's Talia?" she asked, her tone light.

"Not getting into any trouble, if that's what you mean," Aisha answered in an equally friendly tone.

"Of course I didn't mean that," Murrue answered, seriously. Andrew looked at her, his face impassive, though on the inside he was curious. This woman, he felt, was dangerous. Not that she posed any threat to their position at this school, but she was dangerous in the way that she could so easily separate her Blue Cosmos roles fro her principal roles, and yet fulfill both at the same time.

But before he could contemplate further, the door opened yet again, and Mwu entered the room. He barely gave a glance to the Coordinators before pouring himself a cup of coffee.

This seemed too much for Natarle.

"This room isn't a circus," she said pointedly. Mwu just shrugged. Neo, still in his Moebius Zero form, hovered slightly above his shoulder after exchanging a quick word with Archangel.

The room was incredibly tense. It felt to Andrew as though the wallpaper was ready to peel off the walls. And to make matters worse, Neo stiffened up, and Mwu felt a flash of--something--go across his vision.

"Oh, for goodness' sake!" Natarle nearly yelled, recognizing the sign.

As the door opened, a smooth voice greeted, "Mwu La Flaga."

"Rau Le Creuset," Mwu answered, his voice tight with fury as the masked man came in. The head of the Coordinator boys' intramural team, as well as unsaid guidance counsellor for the Coordinator population, and the head guidance counsellor had incredible animosity, though people outside this "relationship" had no idea what caused it, and didn't particularly want to know.

But what they did know was that these two fought more ferociously with each other than any other renegade member.

"You always seem to get in my way, Mwu La Flaga," he said as he leaned against the door--the only exit to the stifling room. His spirit-form Vesalius intruded on the space between them, as though mocking the opposing spirit-form. "Though I do imagine that you'd say the same about me."

The silence extended as they glared at one another. The Moebius Zero unit wasn't moving from its spot.

"Stop it, why don't you," Andrew suddenly said, boredly. "School is not the place for a battleground."

And right on time, a soft knock was heard at the door. Rau Le Creuset waited an agonizing two seconds before reaching for the door handle, pulling it and revealing two red-clad boys. One had blue hair and green eyes, and the other slightly smaller boy was a purple-eyed brunette.

"Who are you looking for?" he asked quietly, dangerously.

"I'm actually looking for you, Commander," the first boy said quietly. "And Kira's looking for--"

"Mr. La Flaga? Is he here?"

The tension in the room was immediately matched by surprise and suspicion.

"Why are you looking for him?" Rau Le Creuset asked, his face not registering the surprise.

"Well," the boy said, looking surprised himself at the question, "my sheets told me that he's my guidance counsellor."

Mwu had a is-this-a-trick kind of look on his face. After the first day, all students were immediately assumed to have joined one of the groups, after which minimal mingling occured. Why would a boy, in the ZAFT dorms, be looking for a Natural guidance counsellor?

And, more importantly, why did the computers tell him to?

"I'll be there in a minute, kid," Mwu called out. "I'll meet you in my office in a few minutes."

As the blue-haired boy left with Rau Le Creuset, Mwu glanced at the Coordinators across the room. They looked as disconcerted as he felt, though that could always be a trick.

"Are you really going to go through with this?" Natarle asked impatiently, her voice clipped.

"It's not going to harm anyone to see what he wants," Mwu answered. "And hopefully no one's foolish enough to break off the truce on this school just yet." He looked again at the Coordinators, who looked rather affronted at the accusation. Mwu shrugged, drained his coffee, and headed out the door.


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: **standard...will also be adding in elements of Kelley Armstrong's vampires and other supernaturals, which I do not own...Yup, adding in another vamp story!

**Author note: **if you have any memorable GS/D quotes, pls send tell me! I wish to incorporate as much of the GS/D universe into this one as possible.

Sorry for not updating for a while! Thanks for reading!

_Italics--_Usre, the Coordinator language

**Bold--Ghia, the Natural language**

Regular--Common, official language of Cornicupris

Vampires of Cornicupris

**11: Taking Guidance**

Athrun eased himself in the seat in the guidance office, a.k.a. the gym coach's office. The room was furnished more for function rather than for comfort, and the chairs were of a smooth, hard material, hardly like the soft plushy beanbags that Ms. Aisha insisted on having in her office and in Mr. Waldfelt's. But the cold plastic was comforting to him, cooling his body that had rose to near-Natural body temperature because of his adrenaline, his desire for a hunt.

In an attempt to distract himself, Athrun looked around the room. There were no personal items on his desk, Athrun noticed. There were trophies surrounding the room--victories from previous Coorinator teams--but no pictures. Not even of Rey, who was the Commander's ward, and, unlike them, who had attended the school a year before. On the bare desk was a scattering of papers, a pencil, a phone, a spare mask, and a mug next to an empty container.

The mug that lay on the desk was heated water, nothing more. For that, Athrun was glad. After encountering the girl, whom Lacus had introduced as Cagalli, he didn't think that he could stay alone in a room with an unguarded pint of blood.

Athrun shook his head. There was nothing there to distract him. The boy still felt tense. On his shoulder, he could feel the hum coming from the tiny mecha, the spirit-form inside agitated. He could still smell the girl's scent in the air. It clung to his skin, his hair, and his face. Underlying hers was Kira's, not nearly as tempting, but present, mocking him as he forced himself to sit still.

_"Should we feed, Aegis?"_ he whispered desperately. He could probably ask some from Nicol...assuming that he hadn't drank his quota yet.

_"We can't, Athrun,"_ the mecha answered. His form was still shaking, the vampiric thirst threatening to drive him out of the machine. It took all their strength--both their strength--to hold Aegis inside that form. The runes were blinking at an alarming rate. _"We've already reached our quota for this week."_

_"Just breathe, and everything will be okay, right?"_

_"Right."_

There was a tiny click, and the door slid open behind them. A strange scent filled the room.

Athrun had noticed that Lacus, Rey, and the Commander had a scent that was different from everybody else's. Their scent was a particular mixture of soap, artificial scents like perfumes and lotions, and shampoo...but underneath that, there was nothing.

Athrun attributed it to being a Coordinator. The plans for their genes must have erased their scent by accident.

_"Athrun,"_ the Commander stated as he came in. Vesalius came in right after him, hovering to the right of his person. Athrun noticed that Commander Creuze tucked in something small and transparent in his white uniform, but decided to ignore it. He had no right to pry into his superior's personal lives, after all.

After Commander Creuze sat down opposite to him and asked him what the matter was, Athrun told him of his Natural dilemma.

**X x X **

_"...and I'd like your opinion on what to do now, or help me to move him out of the ZAFT,"_ Athrun finished, his fist clenched as he rested them on his knees. Aegis had his miniature arms crossed as he rested on Athrun's shoulder. The hum of the spirit-form had settled somewhat, now that the promise of a solution was right before them.

_"A Natural, you say?"_

_"Maybe two,"_ Athrun said quietly, remembering Cagalli. He had finished the orientation an hour ago, and yet he could still smell her scent. The hunger--the thirst--was driving him crazy.

The thirst was always something to fear, and for second-generations like Athrun, the fear was more intense than it was for their parents. Already, there were rumours that a few Coordinators had to be locked up for their own good, and for the good of the community, because their thirst drove off their spirit-forms, leaving them as little more than animals. And there were rumours that, of the number of scant third-generations, only a handful had survived the thirst that was first experienced when one reached the age of one.

But in that small room, Athrun felt...safe, like nothing, not even something as abstract and infamous as thirst, could touch him in that room, where Commander Creuze--a bona fide miliatry official slash gym coach--sat in front of him and Vesalius hovered behind him, as though guarding the door against whatever was outside.

However, this feeling of security was ripped away at the Commander's next words.

_"I don't think I can help you with this, Athrun," _Commander Creuze said, a hint of regret coming through his normally polished and professional tone.

_"Why, sir?" _Athrun asked weakly. He cupped Aegis in his hands. The spirit-form had started trembling again.

_"Because unless you prove that these two classmates are Natural, then, by school laws, I cannot do anything to remove them from your dorms."_

_"You don't believe me, sir?" _he asked, his voice dismayed.

_"It's not of _my_ disbelief,"_ Commander Creuze said, reassuringly. _"I believe you when you say that these two classmates are Natural. You could get the whole Coordinator population to see this too. But unless you can come up with proof to convince the Natural officials, then I'm afraid that they will have to stay."_

_"There's no--loophole--or anything?"_

_"No, this school doesn't approve of switching roomates merely because you have differences. The only way for them to move out is if you can prove that they are Natural."_

Athrun looked at the Commander. Was he really implying what Athrun thought he was implying?...

_"Of course,"_ the Commander said, giving a small smile,_ "you are not hearing any of this from me."_

Athrun returned the smile, though weakly. He thanked the commander and rose to leave.

_"Wait, Athrun," _Commander Creuze called after him. Athrun paused at the door. The coach reached into his desk, and took out a packet of blood. He held it before him, offering it to the boy. The red liquid was a startingly contrast to his white uniform, and Athrun's eyes honed in on it immediately. Saliva started building up in his mouth.

_"You look thirsty. Your spirit-form's been trembling this entire time. You know what all the health bulletins warn."_

_"But I've already reached my quota,"_ he admitted reluctantly. Both he and Aegis inwardly groaned at the wasted opportunity before them.

_"Take it," _Commander Creuze said, urging lightly, holding it out. _"I'll make your excuses to Ms. Gladys, and I'll talk to your vice principal about reassessing your quota."_

Athrun hesitated, then accepted the packet. _"Thank-you sir," _he said again, heading out the door before he bit the pouch.

He didn't even notice Creuze's small smile as he left the room, which, to a Natural, would look suspiciously like an evil, conniving, Chesire grin...

**X x X**

Kira sat in front of the guidance counsellor's chair, waiting as Mwu finished his coffee and caught up.

**"We're switching the course in Ghia as a second language with Politics, correct?" **Strike asked him.

**"Yup."**

**"I wonder if the computer is fried. That would explain why it assigned us such a strange subject. Ghia's our first language--why would we need such a subject?"**

**"Easy marks?" **Kira guessed, thinking back to Tolle, and how, when first signing up for the school, the brunette had joked that he could take the course and not even study.

**"Excuse me,"** a voice said suddenly. Kira turned around and saw Mr. La Flaga--Mwu--standing at the door. **"You speak the earthen language?"**

Kira frowned. Usually, someone who called Ghia "earthen" was usually of the same opinion as some unsavory members in Blue Cosmos.

**"Yes," **he said, a little defensively.

Mwu broke into a grin and held up his hands, saying, **"Sorry, I didn't mean to make such a fuss. I was just curious."**

**"Oh, okay. Sorry about the reaction,"** Kira muttered. Things had been going pretty strangely recently...beginning with the hostile early risers in campus, to the strange looks that he and Stellar got when they met each other after orientation...

**"Nah, don't worry about it."**

They continued with the real purpose of the appointment. As Kira thanked Mr. La Flaga and rose to leave, he called him back with a question:

**"Just out of curiousity, what race are you anyway? Natural or Coordinator?"**

Kira looked back at Mr. La Flaga. He did seem genuinely curious, and his spirit-form wasn't giving away any hostile feelings. But, Kira was still uncomfortable with the age-old question.

He answered with the phrase he often used back at Heliopolis.

**"I'm human," **he said, not knowing that his smile turned more whistful than he would have liked it to appear, **"isn't that enough?"**

He thanked Mr. La Flaga again, and headed out the door.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer:** standard.

**Author note:** If you have any memorable GS/D quotes, plz tell me! I wish to incorporate as much of the GS/D universe into this one as possible.

_Italics—Usre—Coordinator language_

**Bold—Ghia—Natural language**

Regular—Common—Cornicupris language

Vampires of Cornicupris

**12: A Helping Hand**

Meyrin didn't know exactly why, but she felt a certain dislike towards Cagalli.

"_And it's not only because Athrun seemed uncomfortable around her,"_ she told an unbelieving Djinn, though they both knew that his opinion was a major factor in her opinion towards the blonde. She recalled how he was quieter than usual when Lacus had brought in the girl, and how, once they were told to go to different vice principals, he had bolted to Mr. Waltfelt when the girl went to join Ms. Aisha, as if he was being chased by some sort of demon.

She frowned. Speaking of Athrun, where was he? Everyone had come back from the orientation hours ago, and he was not among those who were gathered in the dorm 74 common room.

"_Aegis just left the gym office…but he's not heading towards our common room,"_ Djinn said, her telepathic being sweeping over the school perimeters until she brushed against the Aegis' essence. That was Meyrin and Djinn's specialty: tracking. Meyrin was exceptional at many activities involving tracking and stealth. In fact, she always won at hide-and-seek against Lunamaria when they were little.

Lunamaria, whose specialty was a mixture of charisma and empathy (which, Meyrin thought, was why she could easily get along even with gloomy people like Shinn and Rey), was far more popular than Meyrin ever was. But at least, in this specialty, Meyrin excelled. Lunamaria, however good she was, frankly sucked at tracking, couldn't sneak around if her life depended on it, and was even worse at shooting at the range.

Unfortunately, the reputation of that gift was marred since it was also possessed by a certain stalker called Meer Cambell. Meer had been contemplating coming to Cornicupris for a while, but ultimately, the shuttle left without her.

"_She's probably here, lurking in the shadows, just watching him,"_ Djinn groused. Djinn's rivalry with the Meer's spirit-form, Aprillus, was only matched by her rivalry with Lunamaria's Zaku in fierceness.

"_Maybe we should go look for him,"_ Meyrin said.

Djinn nodded, scrambling up to her accustomed perch. "They're still in the school," Djinn said, her miniature head cocked to one side as she sent her radar over the school grounds. Meyrin joined her, closing her eyes briefly and sending her waves over the same area, pinpointing Athrun's location in the main office.

"_Whatever can he be doing there?"_ she asked.

"_Let's find out."_

**X x X**

In the darkened office, Athrun and Aegis worked with only the light from Aegis' Phase Shift Armour in order to commit a robbery.

"_You do realize that this is illegal?"_ Athrun asked Aegis, who stood on the palm of his hand as he and Athrun tried to rewire the lock system of the main office.

"_Well, there is no better way to do this,"_ Aegis pointed out, using a hilariously ancient artifact—a bobby pin—in order to open up the door that lead to the students' permanent records. Beside him, Athrun's other hand was preoccupied in taking care of the mechanical side of things—for example, tripping the alarm system.

"_What ARE you doing, Athrun?" _a voice asked. Startled, Athrun looked up from his work, expecting to see a teacher, or worse, the principal. He wondered why his sense of smell didn't alert him to the intruder's presence. The person must specialize in tracking; that was the only explanation as to why the scent could be so muted. Excuses immediately jumped at the tip of his tongue.

"Miss, this isn't what it looks like, we were just—" 

"_Hacking in?"_ The figure stepped out of the shadows. Athrun breathed as the form of Meyrin—dressed casually now in a black tee and baggy jeans—stepped out of the shadows. Her arms were crossed, and an extremely suspicious expression was slapped on her face.

"_Oh, Meyrin," _he said, relieved. _"I thought you were a teacher or something…"_

"_What are you doing, Athrun?"_ she asked again, immediately suspicious. Djinn hovered around her, likewise agitated. _"Because it looks like you're about to steal something…"_

"_Meyrin,"_ Athrun said helplessly. The evidence, he thought to himself, was extremely incriminating. There Aegis was, a bobby pin clasped in both his hands, and there he was, typing furiously to keep the alarms from going off. He couldn't talk himself out of this one. There was no other way but to let her in on his Natural theory. _"I have a lot of reasons to suspect that one—maybe two—Naturals are in our dorms."_

"_Naturals?!"_ she asked. Her arms dropped immediately and her expression changed from one of deep suspicion to immediate surprise.

"_Yeah."_

"_Well…what are their names? Do I know them?" _

"_Well, you know Cagalli and Kira? I think they might be…"_

"_But why?" She looked disbelieving now, not willing to believe him._

"_Please, Meyrin," Athrun said, in a mixture of begging and impatience. _

"_If you don't want to help us, just pretend that you didn't see anything here,"_ Aegis said impatiently, his tiny hands still working on the elusive lock.

The girl and her spirit-form paused, unsure for a minute. Then Djinn suddenly said, _"You're doing it all wrong. Give it here."_ Meyrin shoved Athrun aside, and within seconds, they heard the click of success.

**X x X**

Athrun shifted through the students' medical records, immediately finding Cagalli's. Her unmistakable scent vaguely marked the paper, setting it apart from all the rest.

"_Athrun, you almost done?"_ Meyrin whispered impatiently, clinging to one side of the wall, beside the door and on the lookout.

"_Almost,"_ he answered back. Aegis shifted himself so that his Phase Shift Armour would give off better light. Both quickly skimmed over the paper, jumping right down to "Genetic Classification."

They gave a grunt of surprise and disappointment.

**Classification: -----ERROR-----**

"_What the heck is that?"_ he whispered. Aegis jumped down from his shoulder and into the cabinet, pulling out Kira's folder.

"_Maybe this one will work,"_ Aegis said, handing it to him. He flipped it open, only to be met by the same bold, black words.

"_Find anything?"_ Djinn said from her perch.

"_Nothing, it doesn't say."_

"_Well, we do know one thing,"_ Meyrin said.

Both boy and spirit-form looked at her quizzically.

"_Whatever they are, their genes are messed up enough to fry the system,"_ she said shrugging.

**X x X**

By the time they had returned to their building, it was already close to midnight. The Coordinator Hour, the Vampire Hour.

An angry-looking Yzak opened the door to the common room for them, with Dearka right behind him.

"_Where the heck were you, you bastard?!"_ Yzak demanded, glaring.

"_None of your business,"_ Meyrin answered sweetly. Yzak's spirit-form, Duel, was buzzing with anger.

"_It's late, Yzak, we're all tired,"_ Athrun inserted_. "And you know that I am not going to answer you."_

Yzak glared. _"Why you little—"_

"_Yzak,"_ Dearka said smoothly. _"You can nag them tomorrow. Just tell them what you need to tell them." _Buster was already asleep on the top of his head.

Yzak grumbled something unflattering, then something about how he wanted to go back to bed, turned to go to his room, and said_, "There's going to be another fight, tomorrow, at midnight, downtown. It's a spirit-form battle."_ Then both he and Dearka stalked out of the room, the former fuming, the latter shaking his head and yawning.

"_Well,"_ Athrun said, turning to Meyrin, _"thanks for helping."_

A curious colour spread across her cheeks. _"Meyrin, are you alright?"_

"_S-sure,"_ she said, faking a yawn to cover up her stuttering. _"No problem Athrun. Just ask if you need any help."_ She then gave a wan smile and headed to her own room, Djinn giving them a faint wave before collapsing in her person's arms.

Athrun dragged himself to his own room.

"So, what did we learn tonight, Aegis?" 

"_Don't break in when it's late?"_

"_Besides that."_

"_Our little dilemma isn't going to be solved soon."_

"_That's the one."_

With a sigh, he rolled himself into bed. Within seconds, Aegis' glow dimmed into the darkness.

* * *

**Hi people! Sorry for not updating for so long! Hopefully this is acceptable to you. ! bow ! Next up is the first fight scene to this fic! Wish me luck!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer:** standard

**A/n: **plz send to me as much quotes from GS/D! I want to incorporate as much of the original universe into this one.

**Languages:** **Bold—Ghia; **_Italics—Usre, _Normal—Common

Vampires of Cornicupris

**13: The First Day**

It was not the sound of Cagalli's alarm clock that awoke her spirit form. That piece of machinery was now in three separate pieces, scattered throughout the girl's room when it had tried to wake her fifteen minutes ago. No, it was Meyrin's alarm that sent a jolt through Rouge.

"**Cagalli, wake up**," she said gently, though without conviction, as she too just wanted to go back to bed.

"**Why isn't that girl waking up?"** grumbled Cagalli, covering her head with pillows. **"What's with all this talk of Coordinators' heightened sense of hearing? It's right next to her and still she's not hearing it!"** Cagalli waited, hopefully, for the next minute. But when it became apparent that Meyrin would not heed the alarm, Cagalli lurched over and shut it off herself. She glared at the clock face. The number seven, followed by two zeros, slowly made its way to her mind.

"**No sense in going back to bed now,"** she muttered. She went back to her own room, and threw open all the lights lest she succumb to the temptation of bed. Rouge groaned with the sudden onslaught of light. Cagalli dressed in her uniform—the red blazer being slightly too big for her—before Rouge climbed onto her shoulder.

"**First day of school, eh Cagalli?"** said Rouge wryly. Her person just huffed at the reminder, and went to wake Lacus and Meyrin.

Cagalli went back to the rooms. Meyrin was a hard person to awaken. Rouge tried lending a hand, shaking Djinn firmly. But to both their surprise and horror, Djinn's mecha hand immediately came up and clamped Rouge's head, knocking it back, the other arm coming up in what seemed to be the beginning of an attack.

"Meyrin!" yelled Cagalli sharply, fearfully. The redhead jumped up in her bed, and seemed to almost bare her teeth at the intruders. They looked paler, and longer, and sharper than Cagalli expected of human teeth, and she was suddenly afraid of Meyrin biting her. Meyrin was sending out emotional waves of wildness, of self-preservation. So she slapped Meyrin and yelled at her to knock it off.

Meyrin recognized Cagalli, and pried Djinn from a struggling Rouge. She didn't remark on the slap.

"Sorry," she said, meekly apologizing. She held Djinn in her hands. After a long pause, she said, as if in explanation, "Djinn's really jumpy in the morning."

That was not all to the story. Cagalli and Rouge could sense the half-truth in her words, could sense the confusion and downright violence that still stirred within the half-asleep Djinn. But they were too angry to comment on those just yet.

"Just remind me never, ever to try to wake you again," Cagalli answered, her voice tinged with fear and resentment. She cradled Rouge in her arms.

Meyrin, still in bed, let her eyes meet the bed sheets. Cagalli retreated from the room, perturbed at what had transpired, leaving an embarrassed and shame-faced Meyrin and Djinn, who, at that moment, were cursing themselves for their lack of control.

"**What the heck was that about?"** Cagalli hissed to Rouge when they were in the hall. "**Are you alright? Did that spirit-form hit you anywhere?"**

"**I'm okay,"** Rouge said, reassuringly. **"And trust me, you would know if Djinn hit me anywhere. We're linked, remember? Every time I get hit, so do you."**

"**What the heck was she doing?"** Cagalli demanded again**. "Sure, you could be jumpy in the morning, and you and I both know that that's not the explanation, but downright attacking—"**

"**No,"** Rouge interrupted, as a sudden realization took her. **"She thought that **_**I**_** was attacking **_**her**_**."**

"**She got threatened by a nudge?"**

Rouge could come up with no answers.

After recovering and debating with themselves for a few minutes in the hall, Cagalli decided to risk Lacus' room. However, the pink princess was already up and aware.

"Lacus," she said in surprise, holding the door open awkwardly. Tiredly, Lacus bid her a good morning with a smile and a tired nod. She looked like she hadn't slept for half the night. "I was just going to wake you, but as it seems you're already awake an all…"

"Thank-you for you kind thought, but I'm quite alright," Lacus answered. Even her voice sounded tired. Cagalli looked at her closely.

"Are you alright, Lacus?" she asked, concerned though still wary from the experience in Meyrin's room.

"Oh yes, I'm fine." She smiled yet again. Cagalli frowned. If Meyrin was telling a half-truth, Lacus was telling a straight lie. But still, she wasn't very close to Lacus, so she didn't have any business as to even suggest that the girl confide in one such as herself…

Nodding as though she believed her, Cagalli exited the room, and went down to the main campus to get some breakfast.

She left before Lacus and Meyrin took out their breakfast of blood.

**X x X**

Cagalli's dark mood was made even fouler when the sight that greeted her as she stepped out of the building was pouring rain. **"The weather engineers are probably doing this in sympathy of the students," **Rouge commented from inside the dry environment of Cagalli's school bag. Cagalli stuck her hand out, noting that the rain smelled wrong, and the water dropping from the sky even felt wrong.

"**Stupid artificial rain," **she muttered. **"They couldn't come up with anything better?"** She would have gone on in this manner, if a strange noise hadn't started to build up in her ears. It sounded high-pitched, something in between the sound of a piccolo and a fax tone. Almost at the same time, Rouge murmured,

"**Someone's coming. I think it could be Strike." **She turned around.

"**Hi, Cagalli," **Kira said, stepping out of the elevator and next to where Cagalli stood. Strike's head nodded to her in greeting, before disappearing into the boy's bag, choosing the same method of staying dry as Rouge did.

The boy was smiling, grinning like anything on this dreary, wet, and altogether _not nice_ Monday morning. Cagalli felt as if she could hit him.

"**Hi Kira,"** she answered back shortly, before scowling once again at the darkening sky.

"**You know, doing that won't make the clouds go away," **he said lightly, smilingly. She would have retorted a well-armed response to him had not his stomach made a peculiar sound at that moment, dispelling her mood right away.

"**Ah, so you haven't eaten breakfast either, right?"** she remarked, smirking slightly when a slight blush of embarrassment overcame his features. **"Come on, let's see if there's anyone in the cafeteria."**

**X x X**

Breakfast was strange, to say the least. Kira noted how Cagalli tried to block out most of the obvious waves of resentment from the other students in the cafeteria at the time, all from the Alliance dorms, and none that Kira recognized. Kira was slightly worried about Stellar, but then he and Strike agreed that she would find her way there, eventually…and until she did not show up, neither the boy nor his spirit form would agree to sneaking into the girls' dorms.

However, while he was calmly trying to eat his breakfast, he noticed the fluctuations of emotions of those surrounding them: their confusion, their fear, their anger. And it was not merely resentment, but downright hate. The signals had never been so clear before, and neither Kira nor Strike could make any sense of it, and they did not want to tell Cagalli and Rouge, both whom were giving off waves of depression, indicating that they were glum and felt slightly trapped.

Kira was surprised that he could be so in tune to Cagalli's sense of emotion. Strike pointed out that maybe he was just more sensitive in the morning. A sense of decency made him block out Cagalli's emotions, but still, they flowed from her, as if she was expressing them freely, and not bothering to hold them in.

This girl, Strike had commented, was the almost the complete opposite of Stellar, whose waves were difficult to read. But then, she was also much like Stellar in her very presence…

Cagalli's presence early in the morning had followed a strange noise—a strange, high-pitched tune, one that Kira could not identify. The phenomenon was similar to what Kira experienced all the time with Stellar, so much so that he expected to find his sister waiting for him as he got off the elevator, despite Strike's insistence that the spirit-form was not that of Gaea.

But at the moment, Cagalli looked just like a little Stellar who dropped her ice cream come. Without realizing what he was doing, Kira sent in waves of calmness to the perturbed girl, just as he would do with Stellar. She gave a startled yelp when she received them, and Rouge looked up sharply. They looked at him, flabbergasted.

"**You can do that too?"** she asked.

His eyes widened at her question.

"**What do you mean, 'too'?"**

But that was another question for another day, for neither of them was willing to answer. The bell rung, and by mutual consent, they got up and parted.

They had political science right before the lunch bell. The young teacher, a Mr. DaCosta, paired them up for the year's final task.

Cagalli would be partnering with Athrun. Kira would be partners with Lacus.

Kira felt the waves of animosity and disdain before he was twelve feet from the cafeteria. "**What is with this school?"** he asked Strike, who eyed the cafeteria door warily, worried as to what they might find inside. **"Through breakfast, lunch, and dinner, all the students seem to be so…"**

"**Angry,"** Strike finished.

"**Should we go in?"**

"**Gaea and Stellar are inside there, waiting for us,"** the spirit-form answered. He could barely register Gaea's presence under that thick cloud of suspicion.

"**That decides it then,"** Kira said instantly. Whatever they felt towards the people on the other side of that door, there was someone there that they had to protect.

**X x X**

"_They really have no idea what's going on, do they?"_ Nicol's soft voice asked. He, Athrun, and Lacus were eating lunch in the cafeteria. Without looking up, Athrun knew who he was talking about.

Kira had come in before Cagalli did, and promptly went to his sister's table. Cagalli had come in a little after, and after a brief moment's hesitation, joined them. This time, Athrun was ready for her scent, so he registered her presence when it seeped into the cafeteria, bit by bit. But even then he was not ready for the explosion of her flavour when she opened the door.

Aegis' Phase Shift Armour never did look so intense.

He bit down harder on his lunch to try and distract himself, reminding himself of the blood ration that he had just a couple of evenings before. Aegis, more unsuccessfully, was looking with a tortured look of hunger towards the spirit-forms on the Natural side of the cafeteria. But at least he had enough sense not to look straight at Cagalli's spirit-form.

Luckily, neither Nicol nor Blitz noticed.

If Athrun had Kira and Cagalli's heightened sense of feeling, and if he had not been more preoccupied with stuffing himself in order to drown out Cagalli's presence, he would have noted the tone of bafflement and wistfulness in Nicol's tone.

But before Nicol could go further, they were joined by Dearka, Yzak, and Shinn.

Shinn was looking over to the side, his eyes, like many others, narrowed at the mingling of red and pink over on the Natural side of things. Dearka just rolled his eyes and told him to let it be.

"_You guys ready?"_ Yzak asked with a smug look on his face. Just a couple more classes, and then the real lesson of the day—the lesson of survival and of conquest—would begin.

Whatever misgivings or doubt Nicol may have had, he wiped them away as he and Blitz nodded gravely. Athrun followed suit.

Lacus, looking disturbed, shook her head sadly. She had protested against their actions before, and would have done so again, had not a more pressing matter been weighing on her mind, had not an extremely delectable person been sitting in the same room. Softly, she murmured something along the lines of "Remember the victims," and then she and Eternal removed themselves from the table.

"_What's her problem?"_ Shinn asked sharply, though he nevertheless knew the answer.

What all of them did not notice was that Eternal's Phase Shift Armour, which was as bright as Aegis', flared evenbrighter when she passed by Stellar, Cagalli, and Kira's table.

* * *

**A/N: Hi all! Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry, but the fight scene will be in the **_**next**_** chapter, instead of this one…But, on the other hand, the stage is all set! This should be the last of the introductory chapters...**

**Advice would be nice as to how I can keep the characters IC would be greatly appreciated...especially for Kira and Lacus. **


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: **standard

Languages:

**Bold—Ghia—Earth language**

_Italics—Usre—PLANTs language_

Regular—Common—Cornicupris language

Vampires of Cornicupris

**14: Of Battles and of Shadows**

Aegis, mounted on a green hovercraft like all the other non-flying spirit-forms, took to the field. On his left flanked Blitz, on his right was Impulse, and trailing a little behind them were Buster and Duel. Their runes glowed as strongly as their Phase Shift Armour, and just as morbidly. They clung to their weapons, specially designed for them by engineers of the renegade troops.

"_Captain,"_ they greeted in unison to Vesalius, who waited for them in the shadows of one side of the territory. In the distance, they could see Tiger and Oasis speeding along the dusty ground, getting ready to prepare their own troops.

Tonight, they planned to take the territory known as "Kioashung." Though it looked like a mere park in front of an abandoned building, and served as such to the naïve inhabitants of the moon colony, it was actually a front for Blue Cosmos engineers to build weaponry for the Natural spirit-forms.

In the name of pride, the two rebel groups who had sliced Cornicupris into different sections codenamed them after real colonies and countries. Kioashung was a Natural-named territory, thus taking it over was just as important as defending and/or regaining the territories named after the PLANTs.

The only territories that would not be touched until the very last moment were the ones known as Orb—the school itself—and Heliopolis, which was a collective name for all the hospitals in Cornicupris.

"_We will infiltrate the building, and take over the rooms one by one,"_ Vesalius stated, hovering in front of them. "_The agreed time was at exactly 12 a.m., and that is when we are supposed to strike."_

The spirit-forms heard the stress in the second last word. Blitz cocked his head to the side. _"Sir?"_

"_We all know that the Naturals on the inside of that building have been preparing for us hours before the agreed time. Our decreased amount of troops indicate that they have been picking us off, one by one, over the last few days."_

"_Those filthy—"_ Duel burst out.

"_Now, now, Duel. Do not be so hasty. The Naturals, though not playing by the rules themselves, still expect us to. If we wish to conquer Kiaoshung tonight, we must strike now, but without making it obvious that we are breaching the rules."_

Duel, Buster, and Impulse, if they could have smirked, would have.

"_But sir_—" Blitz started.

"_Blitz, we must do this in order to conquer the Naturals. In order to make Cornicupris safe for Coordinators such as ourselves."_

"_There are no rules in war, Blitz,"_ Aegis murmured.

"_Correct, Aegis_," Vesalius answered to his remark. _"Blitz, you cannot fight unless you have your whole being into it."_

Blitz hardened, and then resolved himself. _"I do have it, sir."_

"_Good,"_ Vesalius said, and then plunged to the orders. _"Impulse, Duel, and Blitz, you take out the sentries, but you must be discreet. Find a way into the basement of the building, and do not be seen. That is where the defence system lies. At precisely 12 a.m., you will disable the alarms, allowing the rest of the troops to come in undetected. Aegis and Buster, you will follow me and Tiger's troops in the invasion. Blitz, I want you to do the disabling. Impulse and Duel, I trust you to properly dispatch of any witnesses."_

"_Yes, sir,"_ they all answered.

They disappeared into the shadows, and, thanks to Blitz's Mirage Colloid, were neither seen nor sensed by any psychic being, not even by the mercenary spirit-forms who were there, hired by both groups, to clean up any evidence of mecha battles.

Impulse took out the sentries quickly, and quietly. He shot them while they were looking in the other direction, making sure that the light of the blast went unnoticed. And when it did, Duel took care of the observer.

They went from room to room in this manner, hiding behind crates and computers. Finally, they went to the basement.

"_It's 12 a.m.,"_ Duel hissed to Blitz.

Blitz promptly fried the circuits, and their comrades came pouring in.

The sound of metal clashing against metal filled the halls, though were quiet enough to go unnoticed by any civilian who may have been walking by at this obscene hour.

Aegis charged in ahead of Commander Vesalius, according to orders. And yet, as he sliced through spirit form-after spirit-form, hurting their persons and making the banishing the spirit within the armour into their own realm of being, he couldn't suppress a twinge of something that suspiciously felt like regret.

**X x X**

"**Can't sleep, Kira**?" Strike asked, though he doubtless knew the answer.

"**Yeah."**

"**Can you still feel the waves?"**

"**Yeah. The hatred here is almost unbearable."** Kira, in his bed, turned over on his stomach, resting his chin on his pillow. Strike, beside him, mimicked his movement. His Phase Shift Armour was glowing much brighter than the starlight and artificial moonlight that filtered through the colony. But even his Armour, and Kira's, was not enough to stem the flow of emotion.

Kira closed his eyes, and focused on the barriers in his mind.

It used to work before. His powers of empathy used to have an on/off button, triggered by the slamming down or raising of mind-walls. And yet, in this colony, the feelings were just seeping through them as though they were not there at all.

The strongest of which was coming from the rooms next to him. He had checked in on both Athrun and Nicol before he turned in, unnerved by the lack of noise. Both of them were already in bed, staring up at the ceiling in a glazed way. Their spirit-forms were absent.

The feelings of determination, of the need to protect, sprinkled with fear and doubt and anger, were pounding against his mind relentlessly.

"**There's something wrong with this school, Strike,"** Kira mumbled as he again shifted position. But then, giving a sudden cry of frustration, he dragged himself out of bed and looked out the window.

He was just in time to see someone come out of the dorm room, who started to walk hesitantly towards the park in front of an abandoned building, where the bulk of the emotions were springing from.

"**It's Rouge, with Cagalli,"** Strike told him, detecting their presence. There was a pause. **"You want to take a walk?"**

**X x X**

"**Wait a minute!"** someone shouted to Cagalli.

"**It's Strike,"** Rouge told her from the crook of her arms. Dang. She _really_ didn't want to be seen sneaking out, least of all by the boy who would probably follow her…

Kira finally caught up to her and grabbed her arm. "**Are you insane?"** he asked. **"It's dangerous to be running around!"** He glanced pointedly at the park.

"**What are you doing?" **she demanded. **"You should be back with the others. Besides, there's something Rouge and I have to check out."** She struggled against his grip.

"**No, you don't,"** he countered, pulling her back. Angered, Rouge climbed down from her person and tried to pry Kira's hand off, only to be stopped by an equally determined Strike.

"**You can feel that, can you? Just like I can,"** Kira continued, keeping one eye on Cagalli and the other one Rouge and Strike. **"So you know as well as I do that whatever is going on over there--" **

"**It's a war,"** Cagalli said quietly, looking away. Both spirit-forms stopped their struggles with one another as Kira relaxed his grip and as Cagalli stopped trying to pull away.

"**Exactly,"** Kira answered. **"We're just civilians. We can't do anything about it, even if we wanted to. It would be suicide. Is that how you protect people?"**

Cagalli looked at him, her eyes tearing. Looking closer at his pain-filled face, she knew that the emotions, the truths, and the lies, were just as punishing on him as it was on her. **"Well, what do you propose we do?"**

**X x X**

They sat in the shadows of the trees and, with the endless, though quieter, waves floating around them, started telling each other, quietly, of what it was like to grow up with what they knew, and what they didn't knew.

"**I've always known,"** Kira started**. "Or, I've always known for as long as I can remember. Stellar—my little sister—always needed a reading, or else she wouldn't calm down."**

"**I don't know when I started to know,"** Cagalli said, her tone matching his. **"I always had to do it with Father, I think. To figure out whether or not he was telling the truth."**

There was a pause as they watched Strike and Rouge amuse themselves in the surrounding grass. Rouge tugged up a flower and presented it to Strike as a form of apology. Strike accepted the token, and presented her one as well.

"**Do you think that it's a gift that's particular to Coordinators, or to Naturals?"** Kira asked suddenly, a tendril of him hoping that she knew the answer, the majority of him not caring for the answer.

"**I don't know,"** Cagalli answered honestly. **"I was never told."**

"**Me either."** Cagalli's arm came up and rounded his shoulders in an awkward, one-arm embrace.

"**Guess we'll never know."**

They were so engrossed in their conversation, and were trying so hard to keep up their mind-barriers, that at first they did not notice a shadow darting between the buildings, coming closer to them, until he was right across the street from them.

"**What's that?"** Rouge asked sharply, standing up straight. Alarmed, she went back to her person.

"**I don't know,"** Strike answered, trying to make out the shape. **"Let's go back inside."** They clambered onto their persons, who also, by this time, noticed the shape. Scooping up Strike with one hand, and grabbing Cagalli's arm by the other, Kira started moving towards the dorm building. Absently, his mind reached out to check on Stellar, whose waves, however strange they were that night, were nevertheless still within the dorms.

He didn't notice that he had sent her a tremor of warning, and an image of his fear.

"**It's following us,"** Strike hissed. They started walking faster. When they had reached the doors, they heard a shrill shriek, and looked back instinctively.

The shadow was gone.

**X x X**

Her big brother was in trouble.

Stellar, sitting in front of her laptop that showed her what Gaea was seeing, was interrupted in her battle with an enemy spirit-form in a BaCow model, with a sudden image of a dark shape, coming closer. It was outside, where, according to her tracking device, Kira currently was.

She immediately called to Gaea, who let out a shrill shriek before striking harder into her enemy. **"Take care of it,"** Gaea told her, her voice coming through the laptop COM link. **"Gaea won't be able to get there in time."**

So Stellar abandoned her post, and went out of her room, making sure that the other occupant—a Flay Alstar—really was asleep before she took out her gun and silencer and made her way towards where the shape was.

She was right behind him, and still he didn't notice her. His spirit form was either at the battle, or had been driven away by the thirst. He was looking at Kira and Cagalli, who were hurrying back towards their dorm building. Stellar raised her gun.

"_Die,"_ he suddenly hissed, addressing the fleeing pair. His tongue ran over his fangs.

Something in Stellar snapped. Though he had spoken in a different language, the same meaning held, and the same effect resulted. Instead of simply shooting him, she struck him with the base of her weapon, making him go down.

His Coordinator reflexes kicked in, and he got up immediately. But it was all for naught, as Stellar emptied her ammo into his body, her breaths coming out harder and harder every time. When she was sure that he was dead, she kicked the remains, shrieking desperately,

"**No, you can't have that. Stellar does not want to die. Stellar does not want them to die!"**

When she had finished, she got herself to calm down. Looking back at the doors, she saw that Kira and the other girl had already gone inside.

Satisfied, the blonde girl dragged the body away into the shadows.

**Hi people! How was that? Sorry if that fight scene was too vague!! there will be more in this fic, and hopefully I'll get better by then!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: **standard

Languages

**Bold—Ghia—Earth language**

_Italics—Usre—PLANTs language_

Regular—Common—Cornicupris language

Vampires of Cornicupris

**15: The Following Morning**

_Battles,_ an amused Mwu thought, _should never be held on a weekday._ He yawned for the umpteenth time that morning, and poured himself another cup of coffee. Neo, still half-asleep, roosted on his shoulder.

"**Everyone's tired today,"** Neo murmured close to his person's ear. **"I wonder how many recruits the Coordinator side and the Natural side managed to get."**

"**Just look around,"** Mwu answered. **"Whoever's immensely tired and has dents in their spirit-form body has probably joined a side."**

From the cafeteria table, they looked around. All the students, swathed in blue and pink, were yawning, downing milk or sugar-covered breakfasts. Their spirit-forms were either hanging dejectedly by the shoulder or being cradled in limp arms. This early in the morning, only Naturals were present. Except for…

"**They're here again,"** Neo said, just as the doors opened to reveal red-clad students from the ZAFT dorms. A pause came before the volume of the cafeteria went up again.

"**You remember the strange noise we heard yesterday?"** Mwu asked Neo, though he doubtless knew the answer.

"**Kind of sounded like the noise we hear when Rau le Creuze and that insipid Vesalius come around."**

Neo shook his head. Even now, he could hear the ringing in his ears. Fainter than when his rival came around, but unmistakably present. The enigma of those two—er, whatever they were—grew each and every day.

They went over to some students, all from Heliopolis. Argyle, Alstar, Haww…all those from Heliopolis pointedly refused to join one side or the other. Mwu shrugged, remembering one of the student's words, that Heliopolis was a neutral colony. Still, some teachers were still trying to interest them.

"**Neutral,"** Neo scoffed, on the same wavelength as his person.

**X x X**

"Not interested," were the words that Kira heard Sai say to a teacher as he and Cagalli, along with their spirit-forms, approached their table.

The teacher who had extended the refused offer brushed by the two red-clad students and sent out waves of hostility as he passed. His mobile armour spirit-form deliberately swooped down upon Strike, making him almost lose his balance upon Kira's shoulder.

"What was that about?" Kira asked Sai, with one hand making sure that Strike was still safely aboard.

"Just some teacher pestering us about joining a useless extra-curricular," Sai answered, rubbing his the bridge of his nose tiredly. However, the waves of emotion he was sending told that Sai wasn't giving the whole picture. Even Cagalli, who didn't know Sai as long as Kira had, could tell that from his waves.

But they didn't feel like asking for more details, especially since Flay decided at that moment that the best thing to cheer up her boyfriend was to feed his breakfast. Though Sai was red from embarrassment, he nevertheless complied with the attention. Sai's spirit-form and Flay's spirit-form proceeded to cut up the rest of their people's breakfast, making it easier for Flay to feed her boyfriend.

"Are they always so…lovey-dovey?" Cagalli asked Kira as they sat down uneasily beside the now grinning pair. Kira could only shrug. Strike and Rouge embarrassedly clambered down from their people and sat in front of the lunch trays, trying to avert their equivalent of eyes from the very mushy scene going on before them. The two people and the two spirit-forms continued, as though unaware that they now had an audience.

"Sometimes more," said Mirriallia as she came to join them. "Hey Kira, hey Cagalli," she greeted, recalling the girl's name from the first day of school and from the orientation.

"Hey!" Tolle, also joining the table, said, upon seeing Flay and Sai. "Mirriallia, how come you never do that with me?" he asked in mock mortification.

"Oh, so _that's_ what you want, is it?" Mirriallia said mischeviously, before taking a wad of pancakes and proceeding to stuff it in Tolle's unsuspecting face. Mirriallia's spirit form chased Tolle's around, armed with a fork that had a sausage attached at the end.

"Well," Kuzzey said, upon arriving at the sight of two boyfriend-girlfriend interactions, "glad to see that _some_ of us are still sane." He glanced almost slyly at Kira and Cagalli. His spirit-form, in the body of a robot dragonfly, stopped to hover for a minute, regarding Strike and Rouge with the same air. "Unless you have something to tell us, Kira."

"Wha--?" Kira asked, mouth gaping, and cheeks reddening. Even Strike jumped a little, startled.

"Well, you and Ms. Yula have been—"

Kira weakly protested, but tried to do so without saying anything that might offend Cagalli.

Cagalli groaned, but grinned in spite of it all. The friendly banter was a nice change from that wave of black emotion that was seeping through left right and centre from the night before.

**X x X**

The teacher who had split the students up the day before was still recovering from the hangover-like symptoms that the spirit-form battle left him with. Knowing that the majority of the students were in the same boat, he postponed lessons and instead gave them a work period to work on their project: to construct a city—with focus on the government workings—that would function in a utopia.

"Well, first we have to define what utopia means to us…Athrun?"

_He needed to feed…_

"Athrun?"

_He needed to feed…_

"Heelllooooo?"

_REALLY NEEDED TO FEED…_

"Hey, blue boy! Wake up!"

Athrun snapped out of it, realizing only then that he had been clutching Aegis, as though restraining him, tightly with one hand, and had painfully clenched his other hand into a tight fist. "Huh? Yeah? Oh, sorry. Kind of daydreaming there for a minute…" _Daydreaming of sweet, sweet blood._

"Well, come on already! I'm not going to do this project by myself."

Athrun groaned. Of all the people he had to be paired up with, why, oh why, did the teacher assign with him Cagalli Yula?

**X x X**

"Well, first we need a definition…" Kira said, his face showing his concentration. "Any ideas?" he addressed his partner.

"Well…" his partner said, tossing back her long hair in an effort to distract herself from this completely scrumptious boy next to her. "I think that a utopia is…is…" _Is somewhere were I don't have to worry about maiming, killing, and eating my political science partner…_

"Are you alright?" Kira asked concernedly. His spirit-form, perched in his usual place on Kira's shoulder, peered at the uncharacteristically quiet Haro model. "You don't look like you're feeling very well, Lacus."


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer:** standard.

Languages:

**Bold—Ghia—Earth language**

_Italics—Usre—PLANTs language_

Regular—Common—Cornicupris language

Vampires of Cornicupris

**16: Partners**

Lacus really wished that he would stop doing that.

Every time Kira turned to look at her, trying to engage her in a proper conversation, he sent waves of his scent in her direction. It was floral, it was earthy…and it was delicious. Lacus had to stop herself from inhaling deeply, from breathing in as much of his scent as she could. She knew that it was one step closer from just tilting his head just a little, and then…and then…

That black collar would do nothing to protect him.

_Eat him_, the monster commanded Lacus.

In her hands, Eternal trembled. Her eyes shined, and her pink metal body glowed. She leaned against Lacus' hands, leaning in the direction of the boy's spirit-form, who, unaware of the threat, continued to point out things to his person, occasionally taking up a pencil to make his own markings. It was just so precious, so vulnerable. It made him a perfect target.

_Eat him,_ the monster commanded Eternal.

Eternal let out a groan of frustration, frustration of a missed hunt. In Lacus' head, the sound was terrible. Still more terrible was that it perfectly reflected her own turmoil, her own frustration. All Coordinators knew the sound. It was the sound of deafened silence, the sound of doubt and fear and rage and discord. It was the sound of the monster.

Luckily for them, Eternal was in her Haro form, so the sound came out as a small, high-pitched whine. Kira and Strike looked up.

"Is something wrong?" Kira asked concernedly. Strike peered at them, but especially at the tense-looking Eternal, who betrayed the feelings of her otherwise serene person.

"Oh, Eternal's just really hungry; neither of us can't wait 'till the lunch bell," Lacus answered. The monster mocked the irony of her statement.

Kira still looked perturbed. His eyes, whether he knew it or not, looked searchingly into hers. It was then that Lacus knew what his specialty was: empathy.

Lacus returned his gaze. She was, like Athrun, among the stronger telepathics in the Coordinator world. She shielded her thoughts, placing a façade of serenity and overall genki-ness to hide the deeper, darker emotions within. It was a façade that she used often, among strangers and friends alike.

None of them could know about the rages of the monster. None of them could know how much she longed to eat them.

She was perfect. She was Lacus Clyne, singer, idol, and princess. She couldn't be anything less. She _was_ never anything less, and she wasn't about to let this scrumptious boy break down her well-constructed mirage. She still needed it.

He shrugged, and returned to his paper. Strike's gaze lingered a little longer, but, in the end, even he was fooled.

Both Lacus and Eternal heaved inward sighs of relief. _Are you happy now?_ they both demanded of the darkness.

It just laughed.

**X x X**

"_Uh…Athrun? Are you feeling alright_?" Nicol asked.

Athrun had all but collapsed beside his companion, almost slamming down his lunch tray. More uncharacteristic still was that the tray had a mound of kebob on it, almost smothered in sauce.

The part of him that was still thinking rationally was telling him _Good move, Athrun._ He was becoming so obvious. But that didn't really matter. His excruciatingly long hour and a half with Cagalli had left him so hungry. It took all of Aegis' willpower and pride not to dunk himself into the less-than-normal looking hardly-could-be-called meal.

"_Yeah Nicol,"_ Athrun said, forcing a smile. Nicol looked like he wanted to ask further, but thankfully dropped it. Blitz, however, still continued to gaze at them, questioning vibes coming off his little form.

Aegis and Athrun sensed Rouge and Cagalli enter the room, and without further ado, Athrun started to almost shovel the food into his mouth. Nicol looked disturbed, but Athrun was too hungry to care at the moment. Part of him was distracted with the food, but most of him was tracking Cagalli. Aegis was included in that part, whose gaze traced Rouge around the hall.

They noticed that Cagalli also had ordered kebob, and had the same kind of sauce on it. Aegis laughed darkly, and Athrun knew that they were both thinking the same thing.

_You are what you eat._

They barely registered Dearka and Yzak, along with their respective spirit-forms, arrive. The two were smirking and probably discussing the outcome of last night's spirit-battle. Their spirit forms were jauntily trying to get each other to lose balance and fall off their people's shoulders. Athrun and Aegis could barely recall the details. It was always like that, really. Immediately after the battle, most of them would go into denial. If they didn't, if they acknowledged each and every battle immediately after, they would probably go insane.

He couldn't understand how Dearka and Yzak could laugh about it. Aegis couldn't understand how Buster and Duel could spar the day after. Maybe it was just their way of coping.

Dearka and Yzak stopped short of the table. _"And what's our great leader doing this time?"_ Yzak asked, but his phrase lacked the usual accompanying sneer.

Athrun ignored him, knowing full well that he looked ridiculous bordering insane, but was too preoccupied to care. Nicol said something, and both sat down, trying not to look disturbed.

The three of them got into a conversation. They were probably talking about Athrun and Aegis, and how oddly they were behaving. Nicol said something about politics class, and something about going to ask Cagalli about what could have happened…

At the mention of her name, Athrun's head snapped up. Nicol, Dearka, and Yzak made their way towards Cagalli and Kira's table. Dearka had sat with them, right beside Kira. Nicol had caught Cagalli's attention by placing a hand on her shoulder.

"_It's too close,"_ Aegis muttered. _Too close to her neck. Don't get any closer, and don't touch the other one. The other one is ours too._

Both were horrified by the thought that came into their heads, horrified that it included not only one, but now two people, but they couldn't seem to get rid of it. They watched in poisonous jealousy as their comrades leaned closer to the objects of their obsession...

Disgusted with themselves, they looked away. However, in doing so, they saw Lacus, who was on the other side of the room. She was looking in the same place that he had torn his gaze from, with the same horrified, jealous expression on her face.


End file.
